Bay Islands Primed for Renewable Energy, Part I
Not ready for renewable energy yet? Let me tell you a story about some folks who are.
In late February, I joyfully skipped out of work for a 2-week long hiatus to Honduras. The plan was to do a bit of scuba diving, get some sun (rare in Oregon), and basically do as little as possible. But under the veneer of 'vacation', the trip held a deeper sense of significance for me. When I was 11, I spent 5 months living in Cayos Cochinos (think of the movie The Mosquito Coast
The islands have one immediately obvious problem, however, stemming from general population growth and increasingly ubiquitous electrical devices: residents of the Bay Islands have some of the highest electricity prices in the world. The island of Utila claims its electricity prices are second only to Denmark. Several dive shops there told me their greatest single expense was electricity (hundreds of dollars), and locals said it easily doubled the price of rent.
Why is it so expensive? Because diesel generators produce all the electricity on the islands.
My first impression was ‘what a terrible idea’, and that was quickly confirmed. Diesel isn’t cheap these days, and shipping it 18 miles by boat adds a pretty premium. On the big island of Roatan, the situation is compounded by a completely inadequate distribution system, which is so inefficient that electricity production is constantly interrupted. I was told the only consistency in the system was its tendency to short out. The power goes out every day for hours at a time. Obviously, this is a major problem for anyone trying to do business on the island - imagine trying to run an dive shop or even an ice-cream parlor (and yet they exist!).
After spending some time on the islands, I have one simple fact to report: they are primed and ready for renewable energy.
Let me describe to you an average day in the Caribbean (in case you don’t know):
Sunny, with a steady wind developing in the afternoon."
Now when I say sun I mean SUN. Not the half-assed sunlight in the Pacific NW, but the type of sunlight that makes even the most diehard sunbather look for shade midday. And when I say wind, I mean it blows steadily at 15 mph or more every afternoon (although I must admit I'm not an expert at estimating wind speed).
When I inquired about the dearth of solar technology on the island, the most common answer was: "One guy on the island tried that, but in this environment they fall apart in a couple years. It's just too expensive to buy a new system every year."
Wait a minute. Are you telling me that in 2007 we still don't have a solar system that can stand up to a little humidity and maybe some salt spray? Or has it just not been introduced there?
As far as wind is concerned, it seems that wind generators for small-scale use are just becoming feasible [see this GO post]. Considering current electricity prices, any system or combination of systems would pay off relatively quickly.
Combining wind and solar seems almost too obvious (to a green blogger), but is clearly hindered by lack of capital and unproven technology. I must admit, I don't know the answer - so I’m asking for your help. What technology is currently available to meet this need? Who makes the products? If you are a producer or a user and think you might have answer, please send me a note. Let me open the phone lines, so to speak.
Next week I'll cover something I actually know about, the last third of the 'solution': biodiesel and straight vegetable oil for generators and dive boats.
Photo Credits: Clayton B. Cornell
Tags: Central+America, electricity, Renewable Power, renewable+energy, Solar, Wind
- Uncategorized
April 4th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I remember getting my dive certification in Cayos Cochinos with you… was it really that long ago? Great post, Clayton.
David
Founder and CEO
Green Options, LLC
April 8th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Hi Clayton,
You are right-on regarding the energy problem in the Bay Islands. My husband and I are building a house on Roatan and it will be be one of the first (there’s another one in Port Royal, on the east side of the island) zero energy houses of many to come. And I say many because if RECO (the Roatan Electricity Company) cannot deal with what they have today, you can imagine they will not be able to keep up with the island’s fast growth. We are the owners of a small business called EuroProspect Alternative Energies (www.EuroProspect.com is our website)and we are promoting the use of the equipment we sell for the islands. There ARE machines and solar panels that can work for many many years with no problems in coastal environments like Roatan. We distribute, to give you an example, products manufactured by SouthWest Wind Power. They have wind generators from 400w to 3 KW and all except the larger 3 Kw model have their correspondent marine and land versions. The marine versions are coated with epoxy and corrosion-proof.
As far as solar panels, we distribute several brands.None of them have a warranty of less than 25 years and, if correctly installed, can work perfectly for much longer regardless of the weather conditions.
If you’d like to take a look at our website,the technical specifications of the products we distribute are on the “Products” page and you can access our full catalogue there too.Nowadays there really is no excuse not to incorporate renewable energy and energy-efficient products into everyone’s lives.Of course, if you want a zero energy house like we are buidling, your initial investment will be about 20% more but if you live in Roatan you will not only recover your money at lightning speed, you will also have electricity all the time without burning more fossil fuels,which is exactly what we DON’T need. I am available for any questions you may have and I applaud your blog as another way of getting information out there. By what I can see, the information you were given by that man (”One guy on the island tried that, but in this environment they fall apart in a couple years. It’s just too expensive to buy a new system every year”)is totally incorrect. The person who will be installing our panels is Charles George,better known as “Vegas”. He has been on the island for 20 years and is the owner of Vegas Electric.They do the highest quality work I have seeen to date, with installations of all sorts of electric equipment. They are now concentrating a lot, for obvious reasons, on renewable energy products. So much so that at the end of this month, from April 23rd to April 28th,Vegas is organizing a “renewable energy fair” of sorts for the island’s inhabitants and business owners,so they can come on down, have some drinks,food and learn about renewable energy products that could alleviate their problems.
I’m sure the dive shops and ice cream parlor owners will be among our visitors.EuroProspect will also be at the fair, as suppliers.
I hope this answers your question and I welcome your feedback.
Thanks,
Tamara
April 8th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Tamara,
I'm surprised and delighted to receive a reply from someone actually working in renewable energy on Roatan. Thank you for posting this information.
I'm going to take a look at the Europrospect website and get back to you. Now that I'm aware of a local supplier it's just a question of getting in touch with some of the dive shops I spoke of - they aren't exaclty prompt about responding to emails inquiries - but then again, how can you blame them (they're on Utila standard time).
By the way, how did you end up finding this post?
Clayton
April 8th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Hello Clayton,
Actually, my husband has a “Roatan alert” service and whenever there is news or articles on Roatan, they send him a link,that’s how I found you.
We are based in Miami right now,which is where we distribute our products to 26 countries in Latin America & the Caribbean from. Because it is largely an internet,phone and email based business (we are wholesale distributors), we are moving the sales & marketing division to Roatan when our house is finished (in about a year) and we will leave the logistics and warehouse operations in Miami. I welcome and thank you for the initiative with the Roatan dive shops,they would greatly benefit from these products. However, as we are only suppliers, maybe it would be better to direct them to Vegas Electric so they can do the sizing of the system and establish the wind speed and/or solar irradiation of the dive shops and then reccomend the best products, which we will supply. Also, we don’t do installations,so Vegas again would be the right person. Their website is http://www.vegaselectric.net and, as I mentioned, they are extremely competent and professional.If someone knows how to size a system and install it too, we have no problem in selling to them directly, but there are few people out there that can really do this correctly,so either Vegas or another electrician would be the way to go to avoid faulty installations and/or the wrong equipment being purchased.
I look forward to your feedback on our website and again, I am also delighted to have found your blog,to which I am subscribing right now!
Thanks!
Tamara