Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
In my last post, “Expensive Energy Kills Poor People” , I spoke of the women of Lesotho. In the comments someone asked what I would recommend that they do regarding electricity.
For me, there are two separate questions about the provision of electricity. One is cities and the grid. The other, and for me, more important question regards the folks living in places the grid may not reach for decades. For example, Steven Mosher pointed me to a quote that says of Lesotho (emphasis mine):
The majority of the population (76%) lives in rural areas, but has strong links to urban centres in both Lesotho and neighbouring South Africa. The majority of these villages lack electricity and the probability of connecting them to grid electricity in the foreseeable future is very low. Grid electricity, being a commercial form of energy, requires users to have a regular income. The income levels in rural areas are generally lower than those in urban areas due to higher unemployment and underemployment levels.
Those are the kind of people who I’ve worked among in the developing world, people way off the grid, the type of people who I met when I was in Lesotho. What can we offer them in the way of electricity, the most adaptable and useful form of energy?
I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours running the numbers on the economics of renewable energy of various kinds in the village. I used to teach the subject to starry-eyed Peace Corps Volunteers. Heck, you know how they say “he wrote the manual” on something? Well … I actually did …
Figure 1. Peace Corp Training Manual T-25. The ERIC Metadata says: This document was prepared as a training manual for people interested in developing appropriate technological approaches to using wind power to pump water. The training program is divided into two basic formats, one in which a session focuses on the design process and participants are expected to do some design work in groups, and another which uses a preselected design and does not include the design process. Besides providing sets of training guidelines and objectives, the manual describes training sessions which deal with: (1) the history of wind systems;2) large projects and community analysis; (3) shop safety and tool care; (4) representative drawings for construction; (5) shafts and bearings; (6) strengths and testing; … etc. etc.
I bring this up to highlight that I’m not an armchair theoretician about these matters, and that I’ve worked extensively in the somewhat arcane field of village-level use of renewable energy. So as you might imagine, I’ve thought long and hard about how to provide inexpensive electricity to the poor.
And curiously, the answer presented itself when I was in Paraguay about thirty years ago. I was there to once again put on the wind-power training that is laid out in my manual above. I was out in the outback with a driver going to look at potential wind-power sites, when I saw someone come out of the selva, the local low forest. He was driving a mule hitched to a cart.
And in the cart were a half-dozen auto batteries. I asked the driver what that was about, and I was surprised by the reply.
He told me that the batteries would be owned by several homes and farms far away from the road. There were no power lines anywhere along the road, of course, we were a long ways from the grid. He said the driver would leave the car batteries there by the side of the road, and a truck going to a nearby sawmill would pick them up. At the sawmill, which also wasn’t on the grid, for a small fee the batteries would be charged from the generator powering the sawmill. Then they underwent the same process in reverse. The truck brought them to the mule track, and the mule man took them back to the farms and ranches. There, they used them for power until they were run down.
Brilliant!, I thought. These jokers aren’t letting a little hardship get in the way of having electricity in their homes.
Later, I was talking to a local schoolteacher in Spanish, she had no English. She said that she’d noticed that the kids from the houses with electricity did better than those from the other homes. I asked what the people used the electricity for. Lighting and television, she said. Television? I asked, mystified, thinking that could only stunt their minds.
Yes, she said, they are the only ones who ever hear about the outside world. They’re the only ones who have a bigger vision, of something beyond the selva.
Dang, I thought. That’s how we can power the hinterlands until the grid arrives.
And over the years, I refined that idea into what I call the PowerHouse School concept. I almost got the agreements and the money to do it in the Solomon Islands, but then the government changed, and the tide went against me. Ah, well, the idea still lives. Here’s the elevator speech:
The PowerHouse School is a ten-foot shipping container that is set up to recharge 12-volt automobile batteries and cell phones, using whatever renewable sources are available locally—solar, small-scale wind, micro-hydro, or some combination of all three. It would be run as a for-profit battery-charging business by a school, with the children being trained in the operation, care, and maintenance of the equipment and the charging and feeding of the batteries. It would also sell (by order only, no stock in hand) a variety of 12- and 24-volt lights, equipment and tools. The older students would also be taught the business side of the operation—keeping the books, maintaining the supplies, figuring the profits and losses. Any excess power would be used by the school itself, for lighting classrooms and powering electronics.
The advantages of the PowerHouse School concept are:
• The education about how to use (and more importantly how to maintain) the technology is provided along with the technology.
• The homeowner is not expected to purchase ($$$) the charging system (solar panels, etc.).
• More importantly, the homeowner is not expected to maintain the charging system.
• Students will be trained to do the business side as well as the technical side , supporting entrepreneurship.
• There is no monthly cost to the homeowner. It’s purely pay-as-you-go. This allows participation by those without regular income.
• It uses existing technology.
• It can be sized appropriately, and increased incrementally (one additional solar panel or storage battery at a time).
Finally, it fulfills my own First Law of Rural Development, which states:
If it doesn’t pay … it doesn’t stay.
In other words, if someone can’t make a profit implementing your whiz-bang idea for improving the lives of the poor, your scheme will go to an early grave.
So that was the plan. Never implemented. The numbers sort of worked in the Solomon Islands, it could have turned a profit … if you were creative about the funding of the capital costs. The problem is that you’re looking at some thousands of US$ to set one up, and that would take a while to pay off. Should be doable, solar panels have a long lifetime, as do schools, and the sun is free. But some combination of a bit of grant funds and perhaps a long-term loan might have to be provided.
Regarding the micro-hydro aspect, there are several designs for hydroelectric systems using heavy-duty truck alternators. These put out about a hundred amps at twelve volts, so that’s about a kilowatt. The only issue is moving that power at 14 volts is a problem because you need a big wire size at low voltage. But in fact, they put out three-phase AC, so all you need is to pop out the rectifier that converts the three-phase AC to DC. Then run the AC into a three-phase transformer, and jack it up as high-voltage as you need, depending on the distance. Run your wires from the transformer to the PowerHouse, where you transform it back down to 14 volts, and then run it through the rectifier you removed from the alternator …
Like I said, I’ve put some thought into the question. That’s the best answer that I’ve come up with about how to provide the benefits of electricity to the hinterlands where the grid won’t arrive for many, many years.
Your comment, suggestions, and criticisms welcome,
w.
Some emerging simple rules.
If it works, it works, matters not what the experts say.
Bugger the economics if the selected fuel is cheaper/available on site, use it.
How much does it cost to mass produce a 1kw, single moving part, commutator, slip-ring, brushless generator using mainly plastics?
How much does it cost to produce a similar, compatible CD motor turbine(Tesla disc turbine) running on steam or compressed air to drive such a generator?
Trouble with NGOs and Green corporations, they like the marketing images but will not do the real work, getting it to the people.
And yes using scrap f150 pickups and kitting them out as mobile power stations is a great idea.
Willis:
This has been one of the best threads on WUWT ever. It includes real authorities sharing their knowledge together with other people displaying their inability to grasp the nature of day-to-day realities for the truly poor.
I don’t live in such poverty so I cannot really understand it. But I write to share a little family history because it seems to fit with your point that ‘what works and is available is what counts for the desperate’.
In WW2 Exeter was packed with people from the bombed cities of Bristol and Plymouth when Exeter was also bombed. My mother and her family were among the Exonians who lost everything. They took up residence in a large chicken house on the edge of Dartmoor (it was empty of chickens). Her father equipped that ‘residence’ with electricity and electric light.
They obtained their water from a stream flowing off the moor and adjacent to the chicken house. My grandfather used the radiator fan from an old vehicle as a water turbine immersed in the stream, and the alternator from the vehicle as a generator. Light bulbs from the vehicle provided the lighting but I do not know where he obtained the wires. This system did not need to last for years but was better than nothing for life in the chicken house, or so I am told.
Richard
Here’s a potential Deus ex Machina that would be even more remarkable than Rossi’s e-cat “cold fusion” gadget: the Papp engine. It uses, supposedly, some sort of unknown nuclear reaction triggered by a spark in a sealed cylinder containing a mix of noble gases in a modified gasoline or diesel engine to provide 6000 hours of free 150 horsepower. The designer, Bob Rohner, a former assistant to Joseph Papp, wants beaucoup bux before revealing the secret. He & his deceased brother got it perfected and running six months ago. (An earlier version was supposedly debunked.)
Here’s the link to the home page of his site — click on the tabs at the top for more. It’s worth it just for entertainment value, which I fear may be all it amounts to. Still, you never know . . . .
http://www.rohnermachine.com
Richard has a good point in the story from Exeter. Given mans ingenuity along with knowledge and skills set, a lot can be done with very little.
However, the poor and downtrodden the world over have little knowledge.
We need to give them that and some simple tools. They can do the rest, even perhaps build their own local grid and set up their own energy czar.
Dont give them ipads and tablets? Why not, that is a very controlling attitude. With a simple ipad they gain access to the world, knowledge and even education. Homeschooling becomes real and they develop their own culture but aware of the world and its wonders.
See what happened when simple farmers of spices got real market information. Their real income went from usd 500 to 5,000 plus per year. The middleman got his just deserts.
We, with the supposed brains and intellect, should be able to ensure that they have the basic tools to do the job, they need. Fail by the N.G.O. set of dingbats
Look at simple cow manure digesters, to produce methane. Very expensive but they build their own from mud bricks in India for a fraction of the cost and they have a real clean cooking gas, now.
http://www.pewresearch.org/category/interactives/quizzes/
Dear Willis
I write using solar power stored in lead acid batteries. Try the quiz above 93% of PEW Foundation followers failed to get them all correct. Mind you question 12 is a trap for skeptics or any one with half a brain. I feel most scientists would feel water vapour may be the more logical choice as an answer to this question.
A thought
Why not peddle powered charging of batteries in these communities? Solar is expensive, difficult to maintain and useless when you have rain or cloudy days
Cheers John
The answer is more efficient thermal power conversion technology (like powerchips.gi). Then any heat source could produce DC power, in a fully scalable manner.
Matt S.
I agree with your point. In my first comment I wrote:
It’s my analysis that the use of draft animals, as useful as that work has always been to rural populations, can’t raise these people up out of “energy subsistence” – if that is your goal. It can make their subsistence easier, but cannot fundamentally change the situation for the 3.9 Billion people that Pielke the Younger discussed on his blog last year.
http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2012/11/against-modern-energy-access.html
W^3
In the newly industrializing worlds, it’s all about King Coal. That is the way the world works.
This was an interesting thread.
Where there is enough social disorder, nothing will work. If in Lesotho there are truckers safely and economically bringing in coal, and citizens safely bringing the stuff home and using it, then it’s likely that at least something truly local will work: pedal-powered auto alternators in the home; roof-mounted solar, and so on. If the people of Lesotho can maintain the trucks, then they can maintain the electrical generating units.
Matthew R Marler says:
September 30, 2013 at 9:35 am
A “treadmill” is an old device that uses the weight of a human climbing up a set of movable stair to drive some kind of mill. In the olden days it would likely have been a flour mill. Now, a human laboring hard for ten hours on a treadmill can put out maybe a kilowatt-hour of energy.
The advantage of cheap energy is that where I live, I can buy that day’s labor for about twelve cents US, and that’s a ripoff—in nearby states it’s seven cents, but California has drunk the koolaid … however, I can still hire an electrical slave for a bit more than ten cents for a ten hour day.
But if someone has to actually labor for ten hours to supply that energy, then the whole point of cheap energy is lost.
So please … let’s move away from pedal-powered alternators, they are a very bad idea. The point is to get humans OFF the treadmills, not put the poor buggers ON the treadmills …
w.
Then when the thugs come along, there is something valuable for them to loot.
Wills,
“So please … let’s move away from pedal-powered alternators, they are a very bad idea. The point is to get humans OFF the treadmills, not put the poor buggers ON the treadmills …”
What about putting animals on the treadmills?
Willis:
I haven’t read all the comments so I apologize if someone already mentioned this.
Lighting and television are two technologies that have seen a major increase in power efficiency over the last few years. With LED lights and LCD TV’s (backlit by LED’s) that car battery should last much longer these days than it would 5 years ago.
On another note: I attended a PINC (People, Ideas, Nature, Creativity) conference in the Netherlands back in 2006. One of the presenters worked at a software development company in India. The company was situated in a walled compound surrounded by a poverty stricken community. He had the idea of putting a window in the security wall with an internet connected computer behind it. The mouse and keyboard for the computer were located on a shelf outside the window.
With no guidance or intervention from the company, young kids outside the wall, who had never seen a computer before, taught themselves to use the computer and became quite expert within a few months. They developed their own culture regarding fair usage times, knowledge transfer, etc.
astonerii:
At September 30, 2013 at 9:51 am you say
Yes, and that is why Rule of Law is so important.
Please remember that Lesotho is a British Protectorate. We would not want – and could not afford – to get involved in another war, but if the problem is only some local thugs whom the Lesotho government wanted ‘removed’ then nobody would know if the SAS or SBS ‘helped’. Those bad boys would consider such ‘help’ both a simple matter and a cheap, useful training exercise.
Richard
w.w.wygart,
“It’s my analysis that the use of draft animals, as useful as that work has always been to rural populations, can’t raise these people up out of “energy subsistence” – if that is your goal.”
Why not, that is ultimately the start of how western civilization got up out of “energy subsistence”?
In fact Willis’ whole argument is that you can’t just drop modern energy tech on the communities in question and expect it to make a lasting difference. The whole effort will fall apart with the first component that fails.
The rest of the world didn’t get out from under subsistence living over night, it took centuries to happen. To expect to raise these remote communities out of subsistence living without taking an incremental approach over several generations is magical thinking.
Willis,
Thanks for taking the time to “fisk” my comment – its an honor.
I think in general we probably agree on many issues. You seem to be focusing on the technical/engineering side of the problem; I’m focusing on the system side of the problem. From my view of the problem it really matters if a society is a “closed-access” or “open-access”† order. Whether or not a society possesses this key cultural factor is the biggest stumbling block to them being able to develop to the point that they can afford their own solutions without massive foreign aid and perpetual intervention. Education by itself is not sufficient. Technology by itself is not sufficient. There must be open access to productive activity.
Yes, I might well have been laughed right out of the room. The lack of productivity of the adult population is so thoroughly accepted as the basis of economic reality that anyone who presumes otherwise is laughed off as crazy – or from another world. Believe me I get it.
You wrote about Lesotho in your previous article:
This is not curious at all, the is completely indicative of the failure of a closed-order society to be able to develop itself.
I see a problem very similar to the way described by Pielke the Younger‡ last year: 3.9 Billion people globally needing to be raised up to modern levels of energy access and a developed world, feeling threatened by the prospects, wants to put a brake on electrical access of the developing world that is somewhere around the level of bare “energy subsistence.” I see a need for solutions that ultimately raise this entire population up to modern standards in such a way that they can afford it largely on their own – and without breaking any rules:
Yes, the fist steps will be smaller scale, local, and will be in-fills along the fringes, but at the same time we also have to be able to power entire societies – billions of people.
Just to clear up a few points. I am as much concerned about the general lack of productivity of the adults in the undeveloped world as the education of the children. We’ve both been there and seen how hard everyone works, this isn’t about coddling the kiddies. We both probably know exactly how bad the real child labor situation is throughout the world. That problem is deeply entwined with lack of employment and productivity in the adult population.
That’s my opinion,
W^3
†The Natural State: The Political Economy of Non-Development, Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis and Barry R. Weingast; UCLA Center for Comparative and Global Research, 2005 – http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=22899
‡http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2012/11/against-modern-energy-access.html
Could I add to the automotive alternator suggestions:
1) Claw pole alternators of this type are very inefficient – I have two 3hp Briggs & Stratton engines, one drives a 1kw 230v AC permanent magnet alternator quite happily. The other a home brew 12V charging set using a 35A Lucas (UK) car alternator. This will just about manage to provide the full output, which only equates to some 500 watts, and gets VERY hot under full load.
2) The normal arrangement is to have 6 high power diodes (3 negative & 3 positive) which provide the DC output. There will be a further 3 smaller positive diodes which provide the excitation current for the rotor (field circuit). Some older units don’t have these, and rely on a positive supply from the vehicle wiring, via the ignition switch. In either case the voltage regulation is done by switching the rotor circuit on and off rapidly, varying the “On” time in proportion to the load. Those familiar with some older diesel tractors and motor boats may have noticed alternator triggered tachometers “hunting” when the battery is fully charged, and no lights etc are running. This shows the field circuit switching off completely for a second or two until the voltage drops again.
3) Willis’s idea of using step up / step down transformers has some merit, BUT as pointed out here, the frequency will be well above normal mains, so readily available equipment won’t be any use. The alternator speed would need to be kept constant and suitably designed transformers made to suit. Furthermore there would also need to be 2 wires running back from the remote diode pack / load / battery to the alternator to provide a feedback of the resulting DC output, in order to tell the regulator what to do. Since all 9 diodes are normally in this pack you would STILL have to arrange the DC supply for the field circuit back at the alternator itself. You could, alternatively, run these two wires direct to the rotor brushes, having relocated the entire diode pack & regulator, but there would now be voltage drop problems to contend with. Most of the car alternators I’ve tinkered with draw 3-5 amps for the field circuit, and reducing this will drop the overall output, precisely the situation you’re trying to avoid.
4) In any situation where you’re trying to quickly re-charge heavily discharged batteries the standard fixed voltage regulator is far from ideal. Even a small voltage drop between the alternator and the battery reduces the charge current, as virtually all modern units employ machine sensing. This is why multi-stage external regulators are normally used in marine applications, to a) provide a more controlled charge, and b) to compensate for any volt drop in the cables when batteries are some distance from the engine.
5) One more problem with using small engines to make a cheap charging set (like the one I mentioned) – If you connect the battery up and then start the engine it will likely struggle to accelerate from idle, because as soon as the alternator reaches cut in speed it will present a huge load. My simple way round this was to rig up a side light bulb in the field circuit for initial start up, once the engine was warmed and brought up to full speed a switch bypassed the bulb giving full output. I later improved this with a custom made variable regulator, so the voltage, and hence the load could be varied from about 10 volts up to 15. I also rigged that up with battery sensing to compensate for the leads and crocodile clips used to connect the battery.
Oh, one more thing – some alternators have a single large diode connected across the rotor brushes (or ground to positive) – this will be a Zener diode, which provides some protection if the regulator were to fail short circuit and allow a lightly loaded machine to go way above the designed voltage.
IME – do-gooders do more harm than good for most people. I do think your heart is in the right place, but why not just leave those people alone to find their own solutions; they might surprise you! [E = Estimation]
Matt S.
I certainly don’t intend to be arguing for magical solutions or the dispensing of technology form helicopters into the rainforest, nor am I opposed to incramental solutions. I am arguing for intelligent solutions and more complete solutions.
My main complaint with Willis’s proposal is that it misses the dominant factor in the problem, lack of productivity of the adult population which is deeply entangled with the problem of access to energy, access to education and access to productive activity. That why I would like to emphisize that Willis’s idea would be a better idea if it could improve the productive capacity of the adults in these societies as well as the educational opportunities of the children – even if incramentally.
Centuries ago it took centuries to develop. Today it can occur in one to two generations, the only question is how cleanly and humanely it can be done. Brazil and China are two imperfect examples. The biggest inhibitors are cultural. The biggest problem is access to energy. Western civilization started to really develop after around 1700 when it started to learn to transform into an open order society. Previosly the model included some trade, but also included plundering their neighbors or some overseas colony only to have that wealth wash right through their economy and back out again [example colonial Spain].
Things will actually be a little easier for some of the late coming nations because they will be able to leap-frog some of the infrastructure and technology issues that the current developed world had to go through.
You are correct when you say, “The whole effort will fall apart with the first component that fails,” if the whole economy is so fragile that nobody can afford the replacement part or the technician to replace it. Real economic development has to be part of the program.
The magical thinking in my mind come from people who seriously propose high efficiency twig-burning thermoelectric cookers that will also charge an iPhone as some kind of solution to the problem of third world energy access. I think Willis might agree.
W^3
This is very similar to an approach that I have been working on for about five years now. In my case this would be used in both developed and non-developed countries, with a percentage of the profits from the developed countries funding the distribution of the system to non-developed countries.
In light of the IPCC and, in the U.S., the EPA and White House mandates to kill the use of coal, and eventually any other fossil-fuel energy sources, my design does not burn anything. This design could use the assets in place at shut down coal plants to continue producing energy in a totally non emmision fashion. The process used does not require water for operation or cooling. As there are no emmisions, there is no need for expensive air quality controls. Making use of the existing generator head, control room and distribution system would also make this system extremely economical as these things would not have to be replicated elsewhere. Once all of the existing coal plants are converted we could then start converting each of the other fuel sourced plants until every power plant runs on this system. This design is soeconomical it would even remove the need for solar, wind and even nuclear as an option.
In non-developed countries container sized installations could be used to provide electricity, refridgeration for medicine and food and also charging for cell phones and more. You could also provide stoves to cook on eliminating the need for cook fires. Set the container in a central location next to a community house or pavilion, then a small distribution network could bring lights to individual houses or tents. Some of the electricity could also provide water movement for agricultural or sanitation purposes.
Units could also be built small enough for single remote houses and still provide everything needed for lights, cooking and small water usage.
More information on this project can be found at togetherwecanfixthis.com and at gofundme.com/355kkk or by email johnd.murray at yahoo.
w.w.wygart,
“You are correct when you say, “The whole effort will fall apart with the first component that fails,” if the whole economy is so fragile that nobody can afford the replacement part or the technician to replace it. Real economic development has to be part of the program.”
Here is where you are going wrong in your thinking. For the villages that Willis’ idea will most help, the cost of the replacement part and the technician isn’t the whole or necessarily even the biggest problem. These villages are so remote from any modern infrastructure that replacement parts and the technician are weeks to months away assuming they can afford them. If they can’t fix it locally, it can’t be fixed at a cost that even a U.S company would consider reasonable.
“My main complaint with Willis’s proposal is that it misses the dominant factor in the problem, lack of productivity of the adult population which is deeply entangled with the problem of access to energy, access to education and access to productive activity. That why I would like to emphisize that Willis’s idea would be a better idea if it could improve the productive capacity of the adults in these societies as well as the educational opportunities of the children – even if incramentally.”
Where do you get the idea that it won’t? For all intents and purposes, many of these villages are living in the early iron age or worse. Even a tiny amount of electricity (by western standards) will improve their productivity greatly. Why else do you think that the villagers that Willis talks about in his article are willing to go to such great lengths to get it? Even 19th Century tech from the U.S. would greatly improve their productivity and that would be something that they could hope to maintain locally.
If you take someone scraping by at a subsistence level and give them the means to subsist on even a couple of hours less labor per week than before and combined with even a small amount of electric lighting you give that person the means to innovate further improvements.
I saw an NBC program about 2 years ago of about renewables. They featured a funeral home director (woman), in the UK who invested in carbon credits generated by farm workers in India who used a device similar to a treadmill to pump irrigation water. It was heartbreaking. I am not kidding and will do my work my ass off to find any link to that program.
john,
If it was heartbreaking for you because you thought it was a step backwards for the Indian farmers, you were probably wrong. You can’t judge such things by how crops are irrigated in the western world, you have to judge them by what those specific farmers were using before they got the treadmill (which was probably buckets). If they don’t have grid access an electric pump is out of the question and the treadmill is far more productive than a bucket brigade which is likely the method they had in place before the treadmill. The treadmill likely reduces the amount of labor needed to irrigate their crops somewhere between 3 and 10 fold. On top of that if it breaks, the farmers can probably fix it themselves.
As to the carbon credits, if the farmers are actually seeing any of that money, it is effectively free money as they are being paid to make their own lives easier.
Dear Willis
Your gracious reply on the Lesotho thread is deeply appreciated. I am so impressed by the wonderful people that inhabit Planet WUWT! Thank you Anthony!
Willis, please get in touch with me at [John.Ledger at wol.co.za] and let’s plan a trip to South Africa for you and yours! We can surely find the funds for you to do a lecture circuit in these parts.
Every time I see a huge thunderstorm brewing around our place, with the Charlie Bravos rumbling and rolling at 55 000 feet AGL, and the lightning flashing all around, I say to my missus “Look! Eschenbach’s Air Condiitioner!”
Please come and share your wisdom with us! Apartheid is long dead and South Africans are totally technicolour and want to be proud citizens of the world!
Regards
John