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• Looming Crisis in Nicaragua • Pearl Lagoon Installation • Ian Woofenden Visit • SEI Workshops • blueEnergy USA Office Move and Website Status |
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Nicaragua is caught in the grips of a combined fiscal, political, and energy crisis. Many government agencies are reporting that they will be out of money for the year by the end of this month, foretelling a coming paralysis in the government; the president is facing sanctions and possible removal for alleged campaign fraud; and the electric utility has announced the beginning of rolling blackouts – due to soaring petroleum prices, poor management, and system failures – in a country with an already unreliable energy service record. More on this can be found here. Click here for some historical background on the current energy crisis. Communities outside of Bluefields that rely on petroleum diesel for power generation have been unable to cope with the rising fuel prices and have cut back the number of hours of electricity service and more often than not, shut the generators down completely. Electricity disruptions in Bluefields have reached an all-time high with power outages now a daily occurrence. Businesses, government offices, and educational institutions have been hit hard and are beginning to see that renewable energy systems may be the only hope for a way out of the energy crisis. All of this makes blueEnergy’s work more important than ever. |
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In June, a blueEnergy team traveled to Pearl Lagoon, north of Bluefields, to install a hybrid wind/solar energy system. The system contained a 24 V Piggott turbine and six 50 W solar panels wired up in pairs to give 24 V. The installation was carried out as a joint project between the Foundation for the Autonomy and Development of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua (FADCANIC) and blueEnergy and is part of blueEnergy’s pilot project funded by the Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America (Alianza). The electricity produced by the system is used to power a new Auditorium at the Pearl Lagoon Academy of Excellence (PLACE), a K-12 school funded by the European Union and conceived of and run by FADCANIC. The auditorium is used for lectures, presentations, and music lessons. Pictures of Pearl Lagoon |
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Ian Woofenden, the Northwest and Costa Rica coordinator for Solar Energy International and Senior Editor of HomePower Magazine, traveled to Nicaragua in early August to help blueEnergy team members install a guyed lattice tower; he had helped instruct blueEnergy on the manufacturing of the tower sections prior to his arrival. Guyed lattice towers are more complicated and expensive than tubular tilt-up towers, but require less open space around the tower, and therefore are suitable for installation sites where space is at a premium. The process of constructing a guyed lattice tower is fundamentally different from that of a tilt-up tower in that a lattice tower is built up section by section into the air by raising 10 ft sections with an elevated pulley mechanism anchored to the already installed tower sections. People must climb the tower and do all assembly work in the air. In order to accomplish this great care must be taken for worker safety and professional climbing gear must be used. The guyed lattice tower installed has five, 10 ft sections and a turbine mount tube for a total hub height of 56 ft. The tower is supported by three levels of guy wires with three guys at each level and three anchors. The temporary installation was done directly in front of blueEnergy’s shop on the INATEC campus in Bluefields on blueEnergy’s new tower and turbine testing pad. Ultimately the tower and turbine will be installed in a community for battery charging. Ian and blueEnergy decided to take advantage of his visit by having him do two presentations on renewable energy technologies and their applications; one at INATEC in Bluefields and one at the PLACE school in Pearl Lagoon, the site of blueEnergy’s most recent installation. blueEnergy was honored to be joined by Marina Stradthagen, of the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Environment (MARENA), for the Pearl Lagoon presentation and site visit. Both presentations were powered off blueEnergy systems, serving as a demonstration of how the energy systems can be used. Both presentations were given in English and Prof. Colette Grinevald (blueEnergy Board Member and head of the Rama Language Project) translated the one at INATEC into Spanish. An open house was held at the blueEnergy shop after the INATEC presentation where people could see the locally made wind turbines, and the steps followed to build them, up close. Pictures of Ian's Visit |
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| We at blueEnergy would like to encourage all our subscribers that are interested in renewable energy technologies to take a look at Solar Energy International and the workshops they offer. We have learned a tremendous amount from SEI and have attended many of their workshops ourselves. Their workshop lineup in Washington State for October can be found here and here. | |
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blueEnergy has once again moved its international administrative headquarters. The new address is: blueEnergy 22 Margrave Place, #5 San Francisco, CA 94133 The office phone number remains unchanged and is +1 202 744 5840 The office fax number has changed and is now +1 801 730 9576 blueEnergy has determined that it does not have the staff capacity to maintain its tri-lingual website in a synchronous fashion. Going forward the English version of the website will be given priority for maintenance and the Spanish and French versions will be updated as time allows. This implies that there will be a time delay in the Spanish and French versions of the website (including E-Bulletins) and we apologize in advance to our Spanish and French readers. |
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:last updated - April 2007 |
Looming Crisis in Nicaragua
Pearl Lagoon Installation
Ian Woofenden Visits blueEnergy
Solar Energy International (SEI) Workshops
