ABSTRACT
The remote village of
Malvas in the Andes seems typical of many in Peru. The 500 descendants of the Quechua once ruled by the Inca
have no electricity, no running water, one telephone, and mud adobe houses.
At a 10,000-foot altitude, residents survive with subsistence farming.
A group of us designed and installed a photovoltaic system to provide a
vaccine refrigerator, lights, and a transceiver radio system in the town
medical clinic last August. We
installed light systems in four other town medical clinics in January.
This project involves
service-learning: combining
service with academic subject matter, in this case solar engineering.
Key elements of the project also include:
letting people define their needs, sustainable infrastructure
development, community sharing of installation and virtual ownership (to go
along with almost everything else that is shared in common).
1.
Introduction
The remote village of
Malvas in the Andes seems typical of many in Peru. The 500 Inca descendants have no electricity, no running
water, one telephone, and mud adobe houses.
At a 10,000-foot altitude, residents survive with subsistence farming.
A group of us designed and installed a photovoltaic system to provide a
vaccine refrigerator, lights, and a transceiver radio system in the town
clinic last August. We installed
light systems in four other town clinics in January.
This project might sound
like a typical PV system installation: A
system is donated; consultants install it; no one owns it; something goes
wrong and no one fixes it. The
equipment ultimately helps no one and few learn from the experience.
However, two aspects of this project make it unique: the unusual level
of communal sharing in the town and the design and installation of the PV
system by students.
In this paper we
describe Peru, its people, our project, the photovoltaic systems, the
performance, and our plans.
1.1
Background
About 45% of the 24
million people of Peru consists of indigenous peoples, descendants of the
Quechua once ruled by the Inca (Perrottet, 1998), with a strong tradition of
community service. In the small
mountain towns, the people share farmland and tools and water for irrigation.
Adobe houses are built on common land.
Forty-five percent of
Peru's population lives in poverty. Eight
million people have no access to electricity.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines has installed over 300 PV systems in
the country (MEM, 1997; Horn et al., 1998), mostly in the jungle east of the
mountains that run along the coast. The
mountain areas appear to have a yearly average horizontal irradiation of
roughly 5 kWh/m2 (from our own international irradiation database).
How did we in
Massachusetts get involved with Peru? One
of us (PS) is connected to the Society of James the Apostle, a collection of
priests from various countries in the English-speaking world that work in
Peru. Groups of students from U
Mass Lowell went with Father Paul in August, 1997 and January, 1998 to visit
some remote villages and find out what the people might need and what the
students might learn. The area
visited was east of the coastal town of Huarmey north of Lima, in the
mountains. The area is quite dry.
The people expressed a need for lights and communication equipment in
the town clinics. The team then
sought help from the engineering college.
The solar engineering graduate program as well as the electrical
engineering program became involved.
The priests in Huarmey
suggested that the town of Malvas was probably in the most need.
So we decided to focus on it first.
It is about 75 km east by winding road from Huarmey, at approximately 9
degrees S. The monograph by Milla
(1998) contains considerable detail about the town.
1.2
Goals
The group then developed
several goals for the project:
·
International understanding and cooperation:
to develop creative solutions from both countries, with mutual cultural
and technical learning.
·
Exploration of solar power use in the Andes:
to work together on problems of engineering and economic development
through the use of solar energy.
·
Service-learning: to
integrate academic subject matter formally with service.
·
Local economic development and jobs:
to help create jobs within the university's local area and within Peru.
Service-learning referred
to in the third goal is part of a growing trend in higher education to combine
community service and academic course topics or thesis work. Service-learning
has been defined as “a form of experiential education in which students
engage in activities that address human and community needs together with
structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning
and development. Reciprocity and
reflection are key concepts of service-learning.”
(Jacoby and Associates, 1996, p. 5).
Service-learning has a two-fold focus:
learning for the student and service to the community. There are ten
principles of good practice in combining service and learning of the National
Society for Experiential Education (Honnet and Poulsen, 1989).
These include: An effective and sustained program that:
engages people in responsible and challenging actions for the common
good,
allows for those with needs to define those needs,
provides structured opportunities for people to reflect critically on
the service experience, and
includes training, supervision, monitoring, support, recognition, and
evaluation
Astin et al. (1998) found
several positive outcomes of service in a study of thousands of college
students.
With regard to the fourth
goal of local and global jobs, several previous students in the solar
engineering graduate program have started companies to transform solar energy
in rural areas of developing countries to produce electricity and to dry crops
for improved product quality and added rural income. Some of our present graduate students may go on to provide
similar services in other countries. In
the Lowell area there are two companies that provide solar energy systems in
Central America. One was started
by UML students/graduates. We
have been collaborating with these companies for some time, adding strength to
the local economy while providing basic human needs in developing countries.
2.
the PV Systems
The systems were
designed and installed by teams of students with the help of two faculty/staff
members.
In brief, the system in
Malvas was sized to meet the loads described in Table 1.
Two separate 12V PV systems were designed and installed to give
priority to vaccine refrigeration. In
addition, to warn of high temperatures in the vaccine refrigerator and/or of
low voltage in the batteries, one of us designed and installed a buzzer alarm.
Some of the components of the system as well as the town of Malvas are
shown in Figs. 1 to 3.
Table
1. Loads Descriptions for Malvas
Clinic
|
System |
Load
Description |
Current (A) |
Hours/ day |
Ah/day |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
Refrigerator |
4.2 |
12 |
50 |
|
2 |
Auxiliary
loads |
|
|
|
|
|
-Ceiling light |
1.7 |
3 |
5.1 |
|
|
-Task light |
1.7 |
3 |
5.1 |
|
|
-Lantern chargers |
1 |
8 |
8 |
|
|
-Radio |
|
|
8.93 |
|
|
Transmit |
15 |
0.25 |
|
|
|
Receive |
1.5 |
0.25 |
|
|
|
Standby |
0.4 |
12 |
|
Table
notes:
1.
Vaccine refrigerator: IglooÒ
thermoelectric cooler, uses 4.2 amps, 50 watts, cools to 40°F
below ambient temperature.
1.
Ceiling light: 12V dc fluorescent, 20 watts.
2.
Task light: tungsten-halogen 12 volts, 20
watts.
3.
Radio transceiver: RF 2-way communication.
The group installed a
matching 50W-transceiver radio and antenna on the hospital in the city of
Huarmey on the west coast to cover the 50-km distance to Malvas.
In addition, we installed four other solar light systems in other small
towns in the mountains near Malvas and Huarmey.
These are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2. System
Descriptions
|
|
|
|
Loads |
|
PV |
Battery |
|
Sys- tem |
Location |
Refrig |
Radio |
Lights |
(W) |
(Ah) |
|
1 |
Cochapeti |
|
5W |
20W |
10 |
4 |
|
2 |
Huarmey |
|
50W |
|
- |
- |
|
3 |
Huamba |
|
|
48W |
40 |
105 |
|
4 |
Malvas |
50W |
50W |
56W |
240/48 |
420/105 |
|
5 |
Quian |
|
|
48W |
30 |
80 |
|
6 |
Huayan |
|
|
48W |
40 |
80 |
Initially we used a
controller built by one of us along with a commercial controller in Malvas.
In January we installed controllers in all the systems that have
cutouts of the loads on low voltage in the batteries.
Solar cookers were
introduced into Malvas in January. A
large parabolic concentrator made in Lima by EG Solar from a German design was
assembled at the clinic for sterilizing instruments and for boiling water.
Several cardboard box cookers lined with aluminum foil were made with
three local residents and distributed with black pots in the community.
3. Observations and
Discussion
The systems appear to be
working well in general. There
was a failure of the commercial battery charge controller for the vaccine
refrigerator system in Malvas. Our
own controller did not fail. To
the credit of the resourcefulness of the medical technicians there, they kept
swapping the battery from the lights/radio system after it was charged to the
refrigerator circuit to keep the vaccines cold.
In January we replaced both controllers with new ones that have low
voltage battery cutouts.
The weather in the
mountains is much foggier than we had been led to believe initially.
Typically from December to March it appears that clear skies in the
morning give way to fog before noon with drizzle following at about 3 pm.
We have reports that the systems are functioning during the "rainy
season" except hours of clinic light use are just reduced.
The Quechua communities
have gained, and will continue to gain, technology which will help to improve
their quality of life--vaccine refrigeration, radio communication, and
lighting. They have had the experience of working along with competent and
enthusiastic students from UMass and other colleges.
There is a real hope that, in however small a way, this will help to
stem the tide of urban migration. They
have had a real exposure to the usefulness of solar power, and the opportunity
to begin to explore the economic possibilities this resource could offer them.
The UMass Lowell community
has had the opportunity to work along side a group of people with very
different experiences and very different skills. They have had exposure to the richness of the Andean culture,
and have grown in their appreciation of it.
They have had the chance to work on applications of the most promising
uses of solar energy.
3.1 Future Plans
There is strong individual
and institutional commitment to expanding and making more sustainable this
public health and education project, in consultation with the local people.
Work is already under way on the following:
·
A more sustainable infrastructure for the
systems already installed through, for example, a workshop next summer for
training of local people, particularly parish employees and some secondary
school teachers.
·
A community battery charging station to be
installed and run by a representative body of the village of Malvas with loans
from a regional bank.
·
More efficient vaccine refrigerators along with
ice makers for thermos bottles for vaccine campaigns to even more remote
villages.
·
Communication via e-mail connections with
enhancements to the radio system already in place.
·
Designs of solar systems for crop drying so
that income can be increased in the town.
·
Design of a solar water purification system for
the villages.
·
Design for a domestic hot water solar system
for Huarmey, where electricity for heating water is very expensive.
·
Involvement from local US and international
funding/loan agencies.
·
Cooperation from individuals and organizations
within Peru.
4. Conclusions
We are in the process of
meeting our four goals: cooperation,
solar applications for improved quality of life and environment,
service-learning, and economic development.
The systems appear to be working reasonably well.
It is a challenge to determine the best strategy to use to introduce
sustainable solar systems into communities where property is shared.
We will continue to assess the outcome of this experiment.
5. Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge
the assistance and good humor of Alison Arkin, Anne Johnson, Ryan Duffy, Brian
Purchia, Mary Sullivan, and Lev Jacoby as well as Pepe Jose Gomero in
installing the systems in Peru under difficult condtions.
Craig Munger and Kirsten Cabanas-Holmen helped with the design of the
systems. Funding and in-kind
support was provided by the Catholic Center at U Mass Lowell, the UML Barnes
and Noble bookstore fund, St. Mary’s Parish in Winchester, MA, the Center
for Sustainable Energy and the Electrical Engineering Department at UML, and
several private donors.
6. REFERENCES
Astin, A., L. Sax, and J.
Avalos, 1998, "Long-Term Effects of Volunteerism During the Undergraduate
Years," Review of Higher Education,
in press.
Horn, M., R. Espinoza, and
W. Galarza (eds.), 1998, “Gestion y Administracion de Proyectos de
Electrificacion Rural con Sistemas Fotovoltaicos,” memorias de seminario-taller,
11-13.8.1998, Lima, Centro de Energias Renovables Universidad Nacional de
Ingenieria (cer@uni.edu.pe)
Jacoby, B., and Assoc.,
1996, Service Learning in Higher
Education, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Hankins, Mark, 1993, “Solar
Rural Electrification in the Developing World:
Four Country Case Studies,” Solar
Electric Light Fund, Washington, DC 20009.
Honnet and Poulsen, 1989,
"Principles of Good Practice of Combining Service and Learning," a
Wingspread Special Report, Johnson Foundation, Racine, WI.
Milla, Isaias Rodriguez,
1998, Monografia a Malvaz, Samor
Data, Lima, Peru.
Ministry of Energy and
Mines, 1997, "Photovoltaic-based Rural Electrification in Peru:
Project Brief," UNDP, GEF, Lima.
Perrottet, T. (ed.), 1998, Peru,
APA Publications, London.
Fig. 1.
PV modules on the clinic roof in Malvas.
Fig. 2.
Controllers, fuse box, temperature alarm, vaccine refrigerators (one
used to make ice), and lanterns in Malvas.
Fig. 3.
The town of Malvas.
