Off-grid PV

ENERGÍA SOLAR
The Rising Solar Solution in Rural Latin America
People across Latin America, from the jungles of the Amazon to the ples, community self-determination, NGO
dry lands of Nicaragua, are becoming the latest advocates of solar skill-building, and financial sustainability
power, having seen the impact that PV has had on their communi- have proven to be essential for the successful
use of solar energy to improve lives.
ties. From pumping water to powering two-way radios, the power
of PV has had rippling effects on community life in many parts of Clean water in
Latin America. Anna Garwood, Green Empowerment, USA reports. Nicaragua
In rural Nicaragua, as is the case in many

F
or communities that are off the map be-
cause they are too poor or too distant to
be profitable customers for power
companies, and too remote for limited public
utilities, off-grid solar power has been proving
itself to be a reliable solution for rural energy
needs. In fact, grid extension costs range from
$8,000 to $10,000 per kilometer in develop-
ing countries making solar a cost-effective
option for many of these remote communities.
Numerous local non-governmental organi-
zations (NGOs) have developed from the
recognition that renewable energy can be a
real solution for the rural people in their
country. Green Empowerment, based in the
US, has partners with in-country NGOs
from across Latin America and around the
world. Together Green Empowerment helps
communities determine what, if any,
Low-tech meets high-tech; a donkey carries solar panels into the jungle in Ecuador
renewable energy system suits their needs and
resources, assists them with the design of the
systems, organizes the community to own
and manage the systems, and trains techni-
cians to operate and maintain them.
This article will explore several examples
of Green Empowerment projects that illus-
trate how community-based solar power can
be a viable alternative for rural communities
in Latin America. First, we will look at the
solar water pumping project in the village of
Candelaria, Nicaragua, people now have
drinking water in their homes. Secondly, we
will see how two villages in the Ecuadorian
Amazon have designed unique village-scale
solar projects including power for a battery -
charging station, two-way radio communi-
cation, a computer, a clinic, homes, and
community centres. In both of these exam-
countries, it is common for women and
children to have to walk many kilometers
every day to find water for their families.
The water available to them is often con-
taminated and slows to a trickle during the
dry season. With the scarcity of water and
its poor quality, dehydration and diarrhea
are common health problems. In Nicaragua,
44% of the population does not have access
to potable water, compounding easily pre-
ventable health concerns.
The 240 people in Candelaria, Nicaragua,
live a subsistence life, farming basic grains and
raising small livestock. In the dry seasons of
the year, parched fields push many of the men
to migrate to Costa Rica, in hopes of finding
work picking coffee. The women and children
are left behind to tend to the home. Until
recently this included their daily chore of
walking for hours to haul heavy buckets of
water. Women in the village said they walked
alone for a half hour to one hour - in each
direction - to bring water back to their homes
and families. To fulfill just their basic needs
for water they would need to make three trips
a day, which means spending about half of the
day walking and hauling water. The people of
Candelaria had asked the government to drill
a well, but they received little response. They
remained frustrated in their attempts to have
access to clean water in their community until
they joined up with a small local NGO called

More Information
Please contact: Green
Empowerment, 140 SW Yamhill St.,
Portland, OR 97204, USA.
info@greenempowerment.org;
www.greenempowerment.org

32 reFOCUS May/June 2005 1471 0846/05 © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Asofenix and Green Empowerment to build a
solar water pump project. Once Green
Empowerment and Asofenix initiated the
project and began to raise funds for the equip-
ment and community development, the
Nicaraguan water authority agreed to drill the
well and water distribution system.
After intensive training on solar water pump
project implementation from GE, Asofenix was
prepared to do all of the feasibility study and
begin working with the community. Members
of the community formed a Committee for
Water and Sanitation. This committee mobi-
lized the community and fairly divided the
manual labour tasks, such as burying the water
lines, among all of the men. Asofenix worked
with the community for many months, helping
to get the committee up and running. Green
Empowerment and Asofenix worked together
on the design. All locally available materials
were purchased in country and other equip-
ment was ordered from a US distributor,
SunPumps. The actual installation of the
equipment became a hands-on training course.
Members of Asofenix and the community
learned how to mount the panels, install the
pump, and connect all of the circuitry.
Moments after it was all in place, they turned
the tap, and fresh water came gushing out for
the first time in Candelaria. Everyone gathered
around in disbelief that a few big panels in the
sun could make water pour from the earth.
The community mobilization for the solar
water pump project also was the impetus for
other improvements in the community. The
water project stimulated the construction of
latrines at each home, and a program to edu-
cate people on hygiene and sanitation in coor-
dination with the local water authority.
Integrating latrines and hygiene education
with a clean water system can drastically
improve the community health. The commit-
tee is now responsible for managing the sys-
tem, collecting a small tariff, and doing minor
repairs. The initial funds for the project were
provided through Green Empowerment, with
financial support from New Earth Foundation,
the International Foundation, EnerGreen
Foundation, and through ENACAL, the
Nicaraguan water authority, with support from
the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF). However, the community is
responsible for the financial sustainability of
the project. With results from a community
survey, Asofenix helped the committee to
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determine an affordable monthly tariff to cover
the long-term costs of maintenance. The tariff
was set at 30 cordobas (about $2) per home per
month, which is almost half the rate of the
public water utility. Every month, each house-
hold drops off its fee at the treasurer's house.
The treasurer then deposits the money into a
dedicated bank account in the nearest town.
Soon after the water pump installation,
the word spread, and other communities
came to check out the system, in awe of how
it works and eager to build their own proj-
ects. Asofenix, in conjunction with the local
water authority, has already selected the next
community that will have a solar water
pump project. With its experience in
Candelaria, Asofenix is now eager to inde-
pendently implement the project. While
Green Empowerment will be on hand for
any issues that may arise, Asofenix staff are
able to mobilize the community, design the
system, and complete the installation on
their own. With the local Nicaraguan leader-
ship strengthened, the projects can effective-
ly be replicated independently, and the num-
ber of people with fresh water can multiply.
Amazon people leap
into the solar age
Far from Candelaria, deep in the jungles of
southern Ecuador, Shuar people have also
become advocates of solar power. The
indigenous Shuar are a model of sustainabil-
ity. They live true to their deeply held values
Lifting solar panels in
Candelaria, Nicaragua
Off-grid PV
of honouring the natural environment. For
generations, this has been reflected in their
traditional practices of hunting and gather-
ing, and living in simple structures made of
wood and bamboo. They have also been
active in protecting the environment by
resisting and organizing against the influx of
mining and timber multi-national compa-
nies. While they maintain their traditional
culture, they have also incorporated aspects
from the outside world that they deemed
worthwhile, such as health clinics and
schools. Now, several Shuar communities are
living their values of environmental preserva-
tion, while improving their quality of life, by
implementing village scale solar energy proj-
ects-effectively skipping the industrialized
age of centralized power, and bounding
straight into an age of sustainable, commu-
nity-owned and operated renewable energy.
Green Empowerment teamed up with a
leading Ecuadorian environmental group,
Fundación Natura, which had been working
closely with Shuar communities on conserva-
tion issues for years to bring solar power to
two Shuar communities: Numpatkaim and
Kunkup. Green Empowerment and Funda-
ción Natura initiated the project with a partic-
ipatory design process in which the communi-
ty decided whether, and how, they wanted to
integrate solar power into their villages. Given
limited resources, the project team decided
that each community could devise systems up
to 1000 watt-hours per day. Each community
May/June 2005 reFOCUS 33
 Off-grid PV
divided up their watt-hour "budget" according
to its specific needs. Although the communi-
ties were relatively similar, they chose different
designs to suit their unique situations.
In Kunkup, the residents decided on solar
home systems and power for a woodworking
shop. They decided that men could use the
shop every other day to make furniture and the
women would use the shop alternate days for
their handicraft production. They could then
sell their wares to local markets, which would
make a significant impact on the family
income. Additionally, when electricity was
installed, the county government donated a
computer, complete with a CD-ROM library,
which is now used for the village's school. In
Numpatkaim, however, the community deter-
mined that solar home systems were not a pri-
ority. The residents would rather concentrate
on more community-centred installations.
The homes in Numpatkaim are scattered in
the hillside, and children come to the centre
during the week to attend school, so residents
decided it was not a priority to electrify the
homes. Instead they wanted to bring electrici-
ty to their community centre where they hold
meetings of the regional governing body, social
gatherings, and ceremonies. They wanted to
power lights and a music system, as well as
small electric tools. In fact, they determined
they could rent out the facility for events, and
the income would be used to maintain the
solar power system. Given its priority, 400
watts were allocated for the community centre.
Because Numpatkaim is the central meeting
point for an association of five Shuar village, it
is also home of a basic air landing strip (which
doubles as a soccer field). Since these villages
are several days' walk from the closest road,
small planes are essential for emergencies. The
residents of Numpatkaim decided to use a 75-
watt solar panel to power their two-way radio
communication system-which is their only way
to coordinate plane landings, meetings, and
communicate with other villages and towns.
They also decided to install 75 watts on their
clinic, to power lights for night time emergen-
cies and allow for the clinic to be open in the
evenings when a doctor visits the community.
Bringing power to the health centre is a huge
social benefit, extending the hours of operation
past sunset. Although they decided against
solar home systems, they did opt for a 300-watt
battery-charging station. Many of the individ-
ual homes have batteries that can power lights
34 reFOCUS May/June 2005
and other small household appliances such as
radios. Every two weeks they revive their
drained batteries at the charging station. In this
way, many homes can benefit from the electric-
ity, without the costs of putting an individual
system at each house. This project demonstrat-
ed the importance of letting communities
design their own projects. There are many proj-
ects that consist of well intentioned but inap-
propriate plans that eventually fail to be sus-
tainable because they do not respond to the pri-
orities of the local community. In this case,
these two communities sounded similar from
afar - two similarly sized Shuar communities in
southern Ecuador. However, like all communi-
ties, they had different characteristics and are
made up of unique individuals with varying
priorities who know best what suits their needs.
A "cookie cutter" approach to development
overlooks the unique situation of each commu-
nity. During the implementation of the two
Shuar projects, the communities played an
active roll, installing the wires, panels, and con-
trollers. Once they understood how to the
power tools, they were off and running, eager-
ly putting the systems together and amazed
when the lights finally came on.
To financially sustain the projects, the com-
munities developed their own management
systems. They calculated battery replacement
costs and determined the necessary communi-
ty tariffs, so that they would be able to afford
the long term maintenance of the systems. As
an example, in Numpatkaim, they decided
that $1.00 per battery charge was roughly
equivalent to what they had been paying for
lighting using kerosene lanterns and thus was
affordable. The use of the radio-communica-
tion centre was set at $0.25. The use of the
community centre for big events would also
generate income, as they planned to rent it
out to other communities and groups. With
these varying sources of income, they deter-
mined they could collect $400 per year, which
would be ample to pay for minor repairs in
the future. They also included an ingenious
investment plan, buying and raising cattle.
When funds were needed to replace a part,
they would sell off an animal. As was the case
in the project in Candelaria, members of
Fundación Natura, the local NGO, were also
learning the fundamentals of solar power.
With the skills learned through implementa-
tion of these two projects, Fundación Natura
will be on hand to back up the community
technicians for long-term maintenance and
repairs. These two communities set the stage
for a larger multi-community program that
will bring renewable energy to 32 communi-
ties over then next several years. As in Kunkup
and Numpatkaim, the exact systems will
depend on the communities' design and local
resources. The program envisions a mix of
solar, micro hydro, and drinking water sys-
tems to address the needs of the Shuar people
in a sustainable and realistic way.
Peruvian horizon
Across the border, communities in the remote
highlands of northern Peru in the department
of Cajamarca, will soon also be enjoying the
benefits of solar power. Green Empowerment
has partnered with the Latin American region-
al office of Intermediate Technology
Development Group (ITDG), which has been
working in Peru since 1986. Currently, GE and
ITDG are working with 12 rural villages to
electrify community buildings with solar and
pico-hydro power. The program envisions set-
ting up solar systems on 10 schools, 10 church-
es, 5 community buildings, and 7 rural health
clinics. In the clinics, the systems include a spe-
cially designed refrigerator to store vaccines at
the appropriate temperature, thus bringing cru-
cial health benefits to places that formerly were
considered out-of-range. Community mem-
bers in each location will be intimately involved
with all stages of the project, from conception
to long-term sustainability. GE and ITDG are
kicking off this project with a two-week inten-
sive training in Cajamarca in June 2005, pro-
viding hands-on training for NGO members
and engineers from across the Americas in
micro hydro and solar technology and imple-
mentation. The training course will also be a
forum for the cross-pollination of ideas,
fomenting the regional efforts in community
based renewable energy dissemination.
A rising solution
With many people still without basic power,
Latin America is at a cross roads in "develop-
ment." One route - using centralized genera-
tors or major hydro projects - entails the
side-effects of environmental degradation,
concentration of power, and oil dependency.
However, an alternate route is becoming
more and more viable, one that relies on
international cooperation, community man-
agement, and the power of the sun.
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