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Pico Hydropower Franchises, A Test bed in Rural Honduras

Pico Hydropower Franchises, A Test bed in Rural Honduras. Elizabeth Lemus Mentor: Brian Thomas. Background. Engineers with a Mission BU Student organization formed in 2004 Several projects in Kenya, Honduras, Armenia Many people respond to poverty with charitable (or socialized) solutions

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Pico Hydropower Franchises, A Test bed in Rural Honduras

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  1. Pico Hydropower Franchises, A Test bed in Rural Honduras Elizabeth Lemus Mentor: Brian Thomas

  2. Background • Engineers with a Mission • BU Student organization formed in 2004 • Several projects in Kenya, Honduras, Armenia • Many people respond to poverty with charitable (or socialized) solutions • “Community owned” means “no one owned” • Switched to for-profit to harness power of capitalism • Q: Capitalism? Profit? Isn’t that ungodly? How does this match Baylor’s Mission? • A: The Christian mandate is to serve the poor may be best accomplished using business!

  3. Research Goal • Goal • Determine best technical practices and corresponding optimal business models for bringing electricity to rural communities of developing countries

  4. Question: Why Energy? • Energy has the ability to help people in many ways: • Monetarily • Environmentally • Socially

  5. Energy, specifically electricity, has MONETARY “power” • Generate income for villagers who • own electricity franchise • start other micro businesses using electricity • Such as corn grinding, • ice making, • laundromats? • Attract outside investors who can help us scale up to hundreds of systems

  6. Energy, specifically electricity, has ENVIRONMENTAL “power” • Eliminate kerosene-burning lanterns • Expensive because inefficient user of energy • Poor quality of light • Reduce greenhouse gases and price volatility associated with fossil fuels • Eliminate improper flashlight battery disposal

  7. Energy, specifically electricity, has SOCIAL “power” • Improve education by enabling children to do homework • Improving health by reducing fumes and empowering health clinics • Give people hope!

  8. Hydropower • Abundant in rainy, mountainous, Honduras • Some cultural acceptance of hydro power already • national grid has several multi-megawatt facilities • Renewable • Less expensive than solar or diesel in long term ($/W)

  9. Research and Design Tasks • Design “Civil Works” • Design distribution grid • Test circuit breakers • GPS receiver • Google Earth • Transmission line analysis • Business and legal requirements

  10. “Civil Works”Water Directing Structure

  11. Civil Works Constructed Concrete footings anchored in boulders

  12. Energy Flow 770 Watts output power Hydrogenerator efficiency 42% 63 liters/second 10 ft vertical drop

  13. The Powerhouse

  14. Grid Design

  15. Grid Deployment

  16. Circuit Breaker Testing

  17. Danta Uno After Before

  18. Future goals • Replace meters with electronic circuit breakers • Franchise Development • Cost reduction technologies • Business practices refinement • Work with other organizations • Inter American Development Bank • AHPPER (Honduran small renewable energy association) • AIDG (Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, Guatemala, MIT)

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