and raising awareness of global issues
WHAT'S NEW
FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
LMLG Management Committee meeting - Tuesday 24 January 2012 at 8pm at Southfields Library, Southfields Drive, Leicester LE2 6QS
FOOD FOR THOUGHT - Mon 30 January - Fri 3 Feb 2012 and Mon 17 - Fri 21 Sep 2012 Food for Thought Experience Programme.pdf
GLOBAL EDUCATION LEICESTER-SHIRE - Termly meeting - Tuesday 6 March 2012 from 4 - 5.30pm - Venue TBC. Minutes of previous meeting.
Linking Local Lives - Creating Global Connections FREE training for schools
UPDATES and NEWS:
Latest bulletin from Nicaragua - No 24 - Second results out.pdf
Major environmental issue affecting the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Go to our News page to read more.
Project Sun - 'Proyecto Sol'
Solar panels in rural Nicaragua - Imagine trying cook on a wood fire in the dark, your kitchen filling with choking fumes from a kerosene lamp. Then the lamp runs out and next day you have to travel 20km to get more fuel. That is the routine for many families in rural areas in Nicaragua – because half the population isn’t connected to the electricity grid.
This is where a project in Masaya run by the Association for Community Integration and Development (ADIC) is making a difference. Proyecto Sol was initiated in 2005 and helps farming families by installing basic solar panel kits to generate electricity.
Each kit provides enough electricity to serve 3-4 light bulbs and a socket for a few hours use of a TV or radio. A kit costs about $700, and the families repay this over 5-7 years. The monthly cost is similar to what they would pay for mains electricity, if they could get it, and half the cost of the kerosene and batteries but this provides a system which they own and which is highly reliable.
In the latest phase of the project, backed by significant funding from UK housing associations, solar electricity has arrived in part of the community of Niquinohomo, south of Masaya. A trial kit of a solar panel, battery and control panel was first installed in the home of Don Enrique, and other villagers then signed up for the project. Now almost everyone has solar panels.
Completion of the work in Niquinohomo means that ADIC and the LMLG have together reached their initial target of 100 kits installed, benefiting over 500 people. The work is now being extended to another community, north of Masaya, which is also remote from the grid.
Of course, the project not only benefits poor farming families but is very important environmentally. Nicaragua depends for more than 80% of its electricity generation on bunker fuel, which is costly to import and highly polluting to burn. Even if (as the present government is doing) the system’s capacity is increased, many rural communities can’t benefit unless the privatised electricity grid is extended – which is unlikely to happen.
The panels not only avoid demand for grid connection, but they eliminate the use of torch batteries and kerosene lanterns, which are both polluting and hazardous to health. The panels reduce the danger and inconvenience of having no light. They enable children to do homework and improve quality of life for women who typically get up in the dark to cook breakfast and do other chores. There are also economic benefits for some families, for example, enabling a small dairy farm to milk cows at 4.00am before the milk collector arrives.
Tisma farmer Oscar Sutelo who was one of the participants in the earlier phase of ‘Proyecto Sol’ in Tisma is making good use of night-time energy. His solar kit lights a 20w florescent tube at the edge of the corral where he milks his cows at 4.00am each morning. Oscar explained that the people who buy the milk had complained because of the taste of kerosene from the lantern he had to use for milking, but now with electric light he has no problem in selling the milk.
Solar energy has so far been seen as mainly a luxury alternative for wealthier families who can afford the initial cost. But this forgets the fact that the needs in rural areas can often be met by very small solar kits. They are still comparatively expensive, but not if the cost can be spread over a period of years.
The project is financed by donations from housing associations in the UK and individual donors, and operates through a revolving fund which has a high level of repayment (70-80%). Individual repayment terms are agreed with each family, depending on their circumstances. The maximum repayment period is seven years, but many aim to repay in less. The amount charged is the cost in dollars of the equipment, transport and installation, at zero interest (but there is an incentive to pay earlier because of the depreciation of the local currency against the dollar).
The evidence of Masaya’s ‘Proyecto Sol’ is that people are initially sceptical about solar energy but are quickly convinced when they see that it works even on cloudy days. They are therefore keen to pay for and even extend their solar systems. By the end of 2009, over £8000 had been reinvested, enabling eleven new families to come on board. This is achieved by ADIC keeping repayment costs down, and having a reliable means of collecting them.
With further support from housing associations and private individuals in the UK, ADIC will by the second half of 2010 have installed 150 kits in total. Once it has installed 200 kits, it should earn enough from repayments to install around 20 more kits each year.
Facts and figures
The equipment is provided by local suppliers and consists of a basic kit of one 54W solar panel, a 12V battery, a small inverter and a controller. Typically, these supply a system with 3-4 12W low energy bulbs and one 110W outlet at the inverter. Six hours of full sun with 54W panels generates 324W per day, or 116.4 KW per annum. 100 panels generates 11.66 MW per annum. The manufacturers of the panels and batteries vary, depending on availability, but all give reliable guarantees.
The project was initiated as a collaboration between local suppliers (providing equipment at favourable prices) and Marc Ricart, a volunteer electrical engineer from Spain who did the initial installations and trained ADIC staff to continue the work when he left. ADIC now have a dedicated electrical engineer working on the installations.
Funders: New Leaf, Places for People, Network for Social Change, the Appletree Trust, Southern Housing, Midland Heart, Cairn Housing Association, LHA-ASRA, Longhurst Group.
For more information about this project please view John Perry's bulletins
No 21 - We own the land the water the electricity....pdf
No 19 - Two photo shoots in Masaya.pdf
No 18 - First 100 Solar Systems Installed.pdf
No 17 - ELECTRICITY REACHES LOS POCITOS.pdf
No 16 - MORE SOLAR PANELS IN 2008.pdf
No 14 - MORE SOLAR PANELS FOR TISMA.pdf
No 13 - NEW PROJECTS FOR 2007 1.pdf