A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to go on another community trip, this time to a place called Monkey Point, a mixed Mestizo and Creole village that lies two very rough sea hours to the south of Bluefields.
Monkey Point
Monkey Point is probably blueEnergy's most succesful installation in Nicaragua, which is to say that the turbine is working well, there are numerous households benefitting from the power provided, and the community is organised enough and harmonious enough to efficiently collect tariffs from the villagers for the power they use, and to reinvest it in the upkeep and development of the system. In addition, the power from the turbine lights the local school (also used for regular community meetings) and a small community center. My tasks on the trip were to install lighting and power points in said community centre, replace some ageing cables, replace the old storage batteries with some newer ones and also to audit the energy needs of the health center which is next on the list of projects that the village's energy commision has prioritised.
Me & Amy
Another of the tasks on my agenda was to carry out a training workshop for the villagers on how to correctly raise and lower the turbine. Although the turbine has been installed for a couple of years and the community has raised it and lowered it several times succesfully (e.g. during last year's hurricane), it had been observed by one of the volunteers that they weren't using the correct technique and that the method they used may potentially be dangerous. So we felt it was time for some refresher training on use of the pulleys, coordination of the procedure and safety aspects. However, it takes 14 villagers to raise and lower the turbine, and we were unable to interest more than four people to come to our training session. The reason - there was a crisis meeting underway regarding the fishing situation in the village. I joked with Jorge, my Nicaraguan colleague, that these people had their priorities all wrong. Jorge looked me straight in the eyes, deadly serious - "energía es una buena cosa, pero la pesca es una cuestión de sobrevivir" - energy's all well and good, but fishing is a matter of survival.
blueEnergy has worked hard and achieved much in bringing lighting to Monkey Point, but that's just the start. Until enough power can be generated that something productive can be done with it, lives aren't really going to change. Already though that is starting to happen. The Nicaraguan ministry of health, MINSA, is providing a freezer for vaccines for the village health center, and blueEnergy will help ensure that there is power to run it 24/7, 365 days a year. Whether that is by tapping into the existing wind turbine or installing new solar panels is still under investigation, but it is a good example of how productive uses for power can be found beyond simple lighting, TV and radio.
Monkey Point Sunset
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