Many communities in Sechura ,
Peru Peru
que no tienen luz de la principal luz fuente. Viajamos a las comunidades a instalar y arregular molinos por algunas
comunidades. Aqui yo escribo un poco sobre esta viaje, y mas a venir pronto.)
A small group of about five houses got a new wind turbine
last week that we put up. This was
supposed to be the site for a pilot test of a new method to fund the wind
turbines. A meter was planned to be
installed on each house that was connected to the generator, and this meter
would be capable of measuring and controlling the amount of energy coming
through to the house. After a month of
letting the community use the energy from the turbine for free, they would switch
to having to pay a fee for the energy they use, which would eventually pay off
the cost of the wind turbine, and any future excess would go back into the
community for maintenance or a new turbine.
Though, based on the remote location of this community, it was not
actually chosen for the pilot test of this meter technology.
Playa Blanca, a community of 49 houses near in Sechura was
chosen to be the final location for the pilot test of this meter
technology. The people in this community
were very excited to get a new wind turbine, and they were interested in being
able to pay for the energy, therefore, this meter technology would facilitate
the payment logistics. And the meter
would help ensure that families only paid for what they needed and/or could
afford, and the cost could be chosen to be an improvement for the
alternatives. For examples, families who
currently only needed light in the evenings could be paying less to get enough
electricity to turn on an LED for several hours a night than to buy one or two
candles a night (1 sole each). Or a
family who is accustomed to having electricity for a television, from a diesel
generator, could be paying less for the energy from a wind turbine than to
operate their generator. Playa Blanca
also has some of the best wind resources in the world, according to NASA data,
so this is an excellent place to put in small scale wind turbines for the
communities here. The closest city
connected to the main electricity grid is 40 kilometers away, and it is
actually more cost effective to put in small scale wind turbines than to
connect this community to the grid.
We also visited a house that had already arranged to
purchase a wind turbine. His wind
turbine was installed, and he was making payments of about 500 soles per month,
collected in person. This works well
because the owner is very interested in making payments for his wind turbine,
and WindAid is willing to come by and collect money on a regular basis. However, this model runs into problems if
either of these situations is not present, and this would be where the meter
type of system would be of great help.
Many Peruvians seems to want to pay for electricity. Before having wind turbines, many already
have televisions or other electricity-powered appliances run on generators,
which are expensive to operate, or batteries, which are expensive in time and
money to get recharged in the nearest town.
This guy with the wind turbine loves his television and was excited to
show it off to us.
We stopped by another small roadside restaurant off of the
Pan American highway (forgot to take a photo).
The owner sold us some cold drinks, and mentioned how she was paying 500
soles a month to operate her diesel generator for the lights in her restaurant. She saw our wind turbine propaganda (hats,
stickers on the car, etc.) and was very interested in the product. She could easily switch to paying 500 soles
per month as a payment for a turbine and then never have to pay it again once
the cost of the turbine (about 3000 soles) was paid off.
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