New Battery to Help Energize Peruvian Villages
11/21/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: CSIRO Helps Energize Peruvian Villages
Source: Environmental News Network
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 21, 1999
Byline: Robinson Shaw
Two extremely remote villages in Peru, acting as prototypes of a new
power supply system, will soon have brighter futures. Utilizing solar
power, a diesel generator and a new power supply system containing
banks of gel batteries that capture and store the solar energy, these
villagers will have new conveniences only 24-hour energy can provide.
The battery pack was developed by CSIRO, Australia's premier
scientific research organization and manufactured by Battery Energy
South Pacific. The villages of Indiana and Padre Cocha in Peru's
Loreto province, which are accessible by boat from the Amazon River,
are cut off from the main electricity grid because they are so
secluded. A 24-hour power supply will help alleviate poverty, promote
sustainable industry and reduce environmental pollution.
"The implications of our involvement in this project will bring a
long list of benefits to a largely impoverished region," said Dr.
Russell Newnham, project leader in CSIRO's Novel Battery Technologies
group. "Twenty-four-hour power will allow safe drinking water to be
pumped from remote sources, irrigation to help boost food supplies,
income generation through development of local industry and improved
education and health. "CSIRO researchers developed a battery built
specifically for a Remote Area Power Supply system, known as RAPS,
which will combine solar panels with battery energy storage and back-
up diesel generators to bring improved living situations to the
villagers.
"The battery has a superior cycle life to any other battery of its
type and it is cheaper by far," says Newnham.
Here's how the power supply system works: A series of photovoltaic
panels convert sunshine into electricity. That electricity is then
stored in the CSIRO-designed batteries for use when the sun isn't
shining. If the batteries become depleted of their energy, the diesel
generator kicks in to supply the needed energy and recharge the
batteries. "These are not backward villages. They have everything
they need but they've just managed to do it without the convenience
of being connected to the grid," said Rob Putnam, manager of
communications for the International Lead Zinc Research Organization,
who instigated the project in 1997.
"We are in the process of putting the system together to make sure
it's in absolute working condition, then the installation will take
place," said Putnam. "We will then monitor the system at least one
year and probably more. If it's satisfactory and works the way it's
supposed to be working, we're then going to replicate it. There are
at least 600 more Peruvian villages without 24-hour power."
The villagers will also be educated on the system,how it works and
the importance of sustainable energy, said Putnam.
The Peruvian government had concerns about the environmental effects
of diesel-generated electricity that many of these villages currently
rely on for power, said Jerome Cole, ILZRO president. "There is
concern about diesel emissions and fuel spills in the environmentally
sensitive Amazon River. Renewable energy sources are seen as a way to
help alleviate these problems," he said.
ILZRO estimates that if all the existing diesel generators in this
area of Peru alone were augmented by RAPS systems, nearly 2,170
pounds less carbon dioxide would enter our atmosphere over the next
20 years.
The CSIRO-BESP battery chosen by ILZRO is unlike the typical flooded
lead-acid battery found in the average car. Instead of liquid acid,
the battery's acidic electrolyte is a thick, gel-like substance.
The design gives it several features that make it attractive for RAPS
duty, said Newnham. "They are virtually maintenance free, they
produce negligible acid fumes and hydrogen gas negating the need for
special ventilation in the battery storage room and they are easily
transported and installed as there is little risk of acid spillage,"
he said.
The Peruvian government, ILZRO and a host of international companies
and research groups signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 1997
committing them to provide electricity in a cost-effective and
environmentally sound way.