This is the fifth in a series of guest blog posts by Alissa Emmel about renewable energy projects in Nicaragua.

A light bulb installed by my group for a local restaurant

I went to Nicaragua to learn about renewable energy, both how it works and what the challenges and successes are in low and middle-income countries. I’m not going to write about who should use renewable energy, or how much of their energy should be renewable.  I was more interested in the practical matter of whether or not renewable energy is currently a viable option for rural areas.  The answer is a resounding yes.

Many people in Nicaragua would prefer to be connected to the national grid. You have unlimited access to electricity and it is heavily subsidized.  However, for 35 percent of the population that is not an option, and personally I feel that it is unfair to say to a family that they should simply wait years for access to electricity. Because renewable energy – including solar, hydro, and wind — can come from stand-alone systems, it can be implemented now. This allows for immediate changes in people’s lives.

For me there are a few main questions that can help to determine whether a technology is “feasible”:

1. Are the skills required to implement and maintain the technology available?
2. Are the tools necessary available?
3. Is it possible for the intended recipient to meet the financial cost?

Skills

Solar water distiller

In Sabana Grande we installed four solar panels to provide electricity for a future restaurant. This required us to secure the panels to a frame, connect the panels in sequence, cut conduit tubes and wires, string the wires through the tubes, and connect the wires to the batteries, the switches and the lighting fixtures that we installed. Now, I’m not what you’d call “handy.” In fact, before I went to Nicaragua, I’d never used our cordless drill. So I was quite surprised (and proud) that wiring a building was pretty straight forward.  It took us two days to do everything, but by the time we finished on day two — there was light! So the skills necessary to implement and maintain the technology are available.

Tools

Solar panels

I’d say the first rule of thumb for using tools in low-resource settings is creativity. There are never enough tools, and often you don’t have the right tools. Nevertheless, given all these constraints, it was certainly possible to do solar installations. There are some things that need to be imported (deep-cycle batteries, solar cells, etc.) but everything else you need can be found locally. We made jumper cables to connect the batteries (cutting the heavy gauge cable wire with a hacksaw, stripping it with a utility knife, fitting the copper filaments into a copper, and then crimping it with a crimping machine). We used hand saws, hack saws, screw drivers, hammers, etc.

One of the challenges is that most renewable energy installations rely on battery banks to store energy. Otherwise you would only be able to use electricity when it is sunny or windy. Deep-cycle batteries last the longest, and of those the ones that are “flooded batteries.” (There are also “sealed batteries” which as the name implies are sealed and therefore you don’t add any water). With the flooded batteries you must fill the battery with distilled water every 3-6 months.  Distilled water can seem like an impediment (especially since there was no running water in Sabana Grande), but the Mujeres Solares built a solar water distiller out of wood, a metal plate, glass and copper tubes. When placed in the sun the water evaporates, leaves the minerals behind, and condenses as distilled water on the glass. So other than a few items which need to be brought in, the tools necessary to install renewable energy are available even in very rural settings.

Interestingly, many of the solar panels installed in Nicaragua are made domestically. Grupo Fenix and Suni Solar actually make the solar panels from broken pieces of solar cells that they buy by the pound and trim to uniform size. We did not make the large panels which we installed, but we did each build our own solar AA battery charger.

Cost

Making battery chargers

One of my biggest questions when I was first considering renewable energy for developing countries was end user cost. Sure, NGOs can subsidize solar panels, but is that really sustainable? And is it really feasible to rely on external organizations to subsidize systems for the 1.441 billion people on the planet who don’t have access to electricity? While the panels that we installed were relatively large (2 kilowatts), the panels needed for a home are much smaller. Often the PV systems sold to rural homes in Nicaragua are 25 or 35 watt systems. In the short term a PV system, even a small one, is very expensive for a family; however, with the help of microloans, these systems become not only affordable but economical.  According to Grupo Fenix, “Rural families have only the light of candles, kerosene and diesel fuel (very polluting indoors). This inadequate light may cost $10-15 a month, or up to a third of the monthly family income.” So a family could put the money they would have spent on candles, kerosene and diesel fuel toward the repayment of a microloan for a PV system. Even if it takes two or three years to pay off the micro loan, the solar panels can last 20 years and batteries can last 5-10 years if cared for properly.

So in my experience, based on the above three criteria, solar energy is certainly feasible for rural households in Nicaragua today.

A completed battery charger

Other posts in this series:

1. Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua
2. The problem: cooking with firewood
3. The solution: solar ovens
4. Re-seeding the Forest
5. Is renewable energy practical?
6. The Solar Women of Totogalpa
7. Making a biosand water filter