We started this project thinking that all we needed was a river and voila, we have electricity. We explored the possibility of a micro hydropower plant and drafted a linear plan for the project. As usual, things never go according to the plan. It turns out, the river we identified is headless and apparently very lazy. We reached out to experts to assess the possibility of a micro hydropower plant based on information available on the river. We were blessed by their experiences and knowledge on the subject. If you are planning a similar project, we advise you to join their forum (www.microhydropower.net), they are very helpful. But just a warning, learn how to ask the right questions. These experts are mostly engineers and if you are not clear in your questions, you will be overwhelmed with questions and information overload. Anyway, you are warned.

The key challenge for our project now is to find a way around the "head" issue. From information provided by the experts and internet search, we have prioritized our preference of the available solutions as illustrated in the picture above.

We believe that the most suitable solution is the in-stream tidal current. We chose this for various reasons, more importantly cost and reliability. It appears that this is the most cost effective, environment friendly and reliable available solution at this time. This solution is also more appropriate for coastal towns in developing countries. Here is a video demonstration .

The turbines can be installed without changing the natural landscape of the village. Tidal turbines also do not require heavy civil works to build a dam, which reduces the cost of the project.

A demonstration project for tidal turbine was recently completed on the east river in New York city (http://verdantpower.com/what-initiative/).

Our next goal is to first learn as much as we can on the tidal current and look closely on the technical possibility of implementing this solution in bafila and the amount of energy that can be harnessed. Once we are comfortable, we will assess whether or not to purchase a built turbine or build one locally. The step after that will be to get into action.

If on the other hand another issue rears its ugly head that we cannot overcome, we will look at River In-stream Energy Conversion (RISEC) and water wheel technologies.

If all these three technologies fail, we will fall back on biodiesel. From our reasearch, there are two possibilities for biodiesel in the village. The first is palm oil, which is abondant there and the second is jatropha. We are not considering these solutions at this time because of their environmental impacts and the potential difficulty of selling the idea to the village. The economy of Bafila is that of subsistance agriculture. It will be though to tell people there to give up their palm oil for electricity. As for Jatropha, it will require alot of effort to motivate people (and keep them motivated) to cultivate the plant. They are not familiar with this plant.

Additionally, using biodiesel will require a significant capital investment to buy the generators, which need to be replaced every 5 years or so. We do consider this option as our last resort at this time because we know that it has worked for another village (Garalo) in a neighbooring country Mali. Mali is a landlocked country, the choice for biodiesel is therefore clear for that village. Below is a video of the biodiesel implementation in Garalo. You can see in this video how electricity is changing lives in this village.

Please feel free to comment or send us your feedback.

We started this project thinking that all we needed was a river and voila, we have electricity. We explored the possibility of a micro hydropower plant and drafted a linear plan for the project. As usual, things never go according to the plan. It turns out, the river we identified is headless and apparently very lazy. We reached out to experts to assess the possibility of a micro hydropower plant based on information available on the river. We were blessed by their experiences and knowledge on the subject. If you are planning a similar project, we advise you to join their forum (www.microhydropower.net), they are very helpful. But just a warning, learn how to ask the right questions. These experts are mostly engineers and if you are not clear in your questions, you will be overwhelmed with questions and information overload. Anyway, you are warned.

The key challenge for our project now is to find a way around the "head" issue. From information provided by the experts and internet search, we have prioritized our preference of the available solutions as illustrated in the picture above.

We believe that the most suitable solution is the in-stream tidal current. We chose this for various reasons, more importantly cost and reliability. It appears that this is the most cost effective, environment friendly and reliable available solution at this time. This solution is also more appropriate for coastal towns in developing countries. Here is a video demonstration .

The turbines can be installed without changing the natural landscape of the village. Tidal turbines also do not require heavy civil works to build a dam, which reduces the cost of the project.

A demonstration project for tidal turbine was recently completed on the east river in New York city (http://verdantpower.com/what-initiative/).

Our next goal is to first learn as much as we can on the tidal current and look closely on the technical possibility of implementing this solution in bafila and the amount of energy that can be harnessed. Once we are comfortable, we will assess whether or not to purchase a built turbine or build one locally. The step after that will be to get into action.

If on the other hand another issue rears its ugly head that we cannot overcome, we will look at River In-stream Energy Conversion (RISEC) and water wheel technologies.

If all these three technologies fail, we will fall back on biodiesel. From our reasearch, there are two possibilities for biodiesel in the village. The first is palm oil, which is abondant there and the second is jatropha. We are not considering these solutions at this time because of their environmental impacts and the potential difficulty of selling the idea to the village. The economy of Bafila is that of subsistance agriculture. It will be though to tell people there to give up their palm oil for electricity. As for Jatropha, it will require alot of effort to motivate people (and keep them motivated) to cultivate the plant. They are not familiar with this plant.

Additionally, using biodiesel will require a significant capital investment to buy the generators, which need to be replaced every 5 years or so. We do consider this option as our last resort at this time because we know that it has worked for another village (Garalo) in a neighbooring country Mali. Mali is a landlocked country, the choice for biodiesel is therefore clear for that village. Below is a video of the biodiesel implementation in Garalo. You can see in this video how electricity is changing lives in this village.

Please feel free to comment or send us your feedback.

In the previous step, we concluded that only one of the 4 sites was promising for a micro hydropower plant. Further analysis of this site revealed that the river is tidal, the land is flat and the expected energy output is limited (probably less than 50KW).

The goal of this step is to confirm our estimates and to do a technical feasibility study before we introduce the project to the village people.

We have been in talk with many experts. Some have suggested that we look into alternative energy solutions, others have proposed to put the whole project in their hands along with the required funding. We are still working out the details to finding the most cost effective path to accomplishing our goal.  

We also introduced the project to our mother, who suggested that we stop thinking about it because the village sorcelers and witches will kill our whole family once the project becomes public. No, we are not writting about 14th century Europe, we are talking about a small west african village in 2012.

Ultimately, our plan is to hire local experts that can follow well defined instructions and then have those instructions reviewed by international experts. We may send one or two international experts to the village if required.

From all the information provided on the village, can you provide detailled instructions for a remote site visit? We need instructions specific to the particular case of the village. The instructions should take into account, among other things, the following facts:  the village is about 5 miles away from the ocean, the land is very flat, this is the only site we are going to focus on (see it on google map from previous posting), the river is tidal, their is a hospital by the river with no electricity, we are only interested in micro hydropower plant for now, the river is most likely low head, building a small dam is our last resort, the village people are very protective of the natural environment.

If you are interested in providing this professional document, please contact us and include your price and the qualifications you would required from local site visitors. This time, we will hire a professional to film the site visit.

In the previous step, we concluded that only one of the 4 sites was promising for a micro hydropower plant. Further analysis of this site revealed that the river is tidal, the land is flat and the expected energy output is limited (probably less than 50KW).

The goal of this step is to confirm our estimates and to do a technical feasibility study before we introduce the project to the village people.

We have been in talk with many experts. Some have suggested that we look into alternative energy solutions, others have proposed to put the whole project in their hands along with the required funding. We are still working out the details to finding the most cost effective path to accomplishing our goal.  

We also introduced the project to our mother, who suggested that we stop thinking about it because the village sorcelers and witches will kill our whole family once the project becomes public. No, we are not writting about 14th century Europe, we are talking about a small west african village in 2012.

Ultimately, our plan is to hire local experts that can follow well defined instructions and then have those instructions reviewed by international experts. We may send one or two international experts to the village if required.

From all the information provided on the village, can you provide detailled instructions for a remote site visit? We need instructions specific to the particular case of the village. The instructions should take into account, among other things, the following facts:  the village is about 5 miles away from the ocean, the land is very flat, this is the only site we are going to focus on (see it on google map from previous posting), the river is tidal, their is a hospital by the river with no electricity, we are only interested in micro hydropower plant for now, the river is most likely low head, building a small dam is our last resort, the village people are very protective of the natural environment.

If you are interested in providing this professional document, please contact us and include your price and the qualifications you would required from local site visitors. This time, we will hire a professional to film the site visit.

Hello,

The original plan was for my brother to go to the village and to film the four rivers so that we can assess the potential for micro hydropower plant. As always, events did not unfold as planned, but he managed to get some useful data that we can use for a rough estimate. From our analysis, we believe that at least 50kwh of reliable energy can be provided to the village people. Below are the story and the technical analysis.

The story

When I went to Guinea last December, I gave my brother a brand new working Sony camera. Last week, I asked him to go film the four rivers. He did not know how to use the camera well, so I sent him to someone in the city who is familiar with the device. Unfortunately, that person was busy running his own video recording business and did not have time to teach my brother. To avoid delays, I asked him to go to the village and take pictures of the rivers (he has learned how to take pictures with the camera).  I also gave him instructions on how to take various measures. He went there, took many pictures and measurements but forgot the most important ones; the pictures of the rivers. He did provide, however, very critical information as outlined below.

1) Of the 4 rivers, 2 have dried out. It is worth noting that Guinea has only two seasons: it rains 6 out 12 months (from May to October) and it is sunny the other half of the year. With this information, we have now ruled out the 2 rivers. We are left with 2.

2) Near one of the two rivers that still have water, he told me that there is a hospital that was built by Japanese. If you look  up bafila on google earth, you will see an isolated bright spot at the border of the curvy river. That is the river he was refering to. This is very useful information. First, I am sure the Japanese had a reason to build a hospital there and most likely, they were thinking about electricity when they chose this site. The question now is, why didn't they build a micro hydropower there? It could be that it was not technically feasible; but again, they could have at least installed a solar panel to provide electricity to the hospital. They built the hospital and left it with no electricity. My theory is that either they ran out of money or that the political environment was no longer favorable for them to continue the work. The hospital was built with foreign aid and with that, come all the political implications. I recall that one of the village sons was once the country's finance minister in that period and he probably used his influence to obtain the foreign aid. He did not last long as finance minister and the project ended after the country's president fired him. I could attempt to track down the japanese institution that built the hospital to get more information, but I run the risk of falling into the political abyss. I would rather keep my eyes on the ball. The goal at this point is to know whether or not a micro hydropower plant is possible there. Once that is known, then I can start selling the idea to the village people. They will be disappointed to hear about it now and then found out later that it is not possible.

Back to our project, I think the river with the hospital is the one to focus on; not only for the afore mentioned reason, but also because it has the potential to provide electricity to at least the hospital no matter how small the power output turns out to be.

The next step is to send someone more skilled to visit this site and do a technical feasibility study.

Technical site data collected by my brother: he told me that the river is 7 meters deep and the speed is 0.2 meter per second. After checking the river on google earth, it is about 5 meters wide where it passes the hospital. This gives me a flow of 59.5 cms. I am using this formula flow[cms]=0.85*speed*width*depth.

Since we are dealing with a low head site, the expected change in elevation is less than 3 meters. After playing aroung the area on google earth, I think that it is possible to get 1 meter vertical drop.

The system efficiency is usually between 40 and 70 percent. I will be conservative and choose 40%.

With these assumptions (1 meter head, 40% efficiency, 59.5 cms), the expected capacity of a micro hydro power plant at this site is  233.48 kwh. Factoring in a load factor of 25% (again, to be conservative), the estimated electricity supply to the village is 58.37 kwh.

Thus, it is safe to assume that the village could get at least 50 kwh. This plant could power 167 households in the village (5 lamps of 60 watts per household).

The next step is to send in an expert for further analysis.

What do you think? Please leave a comment or use the feedback form to contact us.

Below are some of the picture that my brother took:

The first picture shows my brother standing by entrance sign to the village.

The second picture shows our late dad's vacation house. He lived in the city and built this one for vacation. We intend to use it to house international experts during the project.

The third picture is an elder who still lives at the house I grew up in. He is the last living elder with whom I shared childhoold memories. He has never used Internet in his whole life.

The last picture shows the tomb of my grand mother, RIP: She never saw me after I left the country. My dad made this special sign to make sure I could find where she was buried.

Hello,

The original plan was for my brother to go to the village and to film the four rivers so that we can assess the potential for micro hydropower plant. As always, events did not unfold as planned, but he managed to get some useful data that we can use for a rough estimate. From our analysis, we believe that at least 50kwh of reliable energy can be provided to the village people. Below are the story and the technical analysis.

The story

When I went to Guinea last December, I gave my brother a brand new working Sony camera. Last week, I asked him to go film the four rivers. He did not know how to use the camera well, so I sent him to someone in the city who is familiar with the device. Unfortunately, that person was busy running his own video recording business and did not have time to teach my brother. To avoid delays, I asked him to go to the village and take pictures of the rivers (he has learned how to take pictures with the camera).  I also gave him instructions on how to take various measures. He went there, took many pictures and measurements but forgot the most important ones; the pictures of the rivers. He did provide, however, very critical information as outlined below.

1) Of the 4 rivers, 2 have dried out. It is worth noting that Guinea has only two seasons: it rains 6 out 12 months (from May to October) and it is sunny the other half of the year. With this information, we have now ruled out the 2 rivers. We are left with 2.

2) Near one of the two rivers that still have water, he told me that there is a hospital that was built by Japanese. If you look  up bafila on google earth, you will see an isolated bright spot at the border of the curvy river. That is the river he was refering to. This is very useful information. First, I am sure the Japanese had a reason to build a hospital there and most likely, they were thinking about electricity when they chose this site. The question now is, why didn't they build a micro hydropower there? It could be that it was not technically feasible; but again, they could have at least installed a solar panel to provide electricity to the hospital. They built the hospital and left it with no electricity. My theory is that either they ran out of money or that the political environment was no longer favorable for them to continue the work. The hospital was built with foreign aid and with that, come all the political implications. I recall that one of the village sons was once the country's finance minister in that period and he probably used his influence to obtain the foreign aid. He did not last long as finance minister and the project ended after the country's president fired him. I could attempt to track down the japanese institution that built the hospital to get more information, but I run the risk of falling into the political abyss. I would rather keep my eyes on the ball. The goal at this point is to know whether or not a micro hydropower plant is possible there. Once that is known, then I can start selling the idea to the village people. They will be disappointed to hear about it now and then found out later that it is not possible.

Back to our project, I think the river with the hospital is the one to focus on; not only for the afore mentioned reason, but also because it has the potential to provide electricity to at least the hospital no matter how small the power output turns out to be.

The next step is to send someone more skilled to visit this site and do a technical feasibility study.

Technical site data collected by my brother: he told me that the river is 7 meters deep and the speed is 0.2 meter per second. After checking the river on google earth, it is about 5 meters wide where it passes the hospital. This gives me a flow of 59.5 cms. I am using this formula flow[cms]=0.85*speed*width*depth.

Since we are dealing with a low head site, the expected change in elevation is less than 3 meters. After playing aroung the area on google earth, I think that it is possible to get 1 meter vertical drop.

The system efficiency is usually between 40 and 70 percent. I will be conservative and choose 40%.

With these assumptions (1 meter head, 40% efficiency, 59.5 cms), the expected capacity of a micro hydro power plant at this site is  233.48 kwh. Factoring in a load factor of 25% (again, to be conservative), the estimated electricity supply to the village is 58.37 kwh.

Thus, it is safe to assume that the village could get at least 50 kwh. This plant could power 167 households in the village (5 lamps of 60 watts per household).

The next step is to send in an expert for further analysis.

What do you think? Please leave a comment or use the feedback form to contact us.

Below are some of the picture that my brother took:

The first picture shows my brother standing by entrance sign to the village.

The second picture shows our late dad's vacation house. He lived in the city and built this one for vacation. We intend to use it to house international experts during the project.

The third picture is an elder who still lives at the house I grew up in. He is the last living elder with whom I shared childhoold memories. He has never used Internet in his whole life.

The last picture shows the tomb of my grand mother, RIP: She never saw me after I left the country. My dad made this special sign to make sure I could find where she was buried.

We have the following contract opportunities. Contact us (include resume or website) if you are interested and we will call you for an interview if your background is a good match.

Site visit team:

We are planning a trip to the village with a team of micro hydropower project experts. The duration of the trip is two weeks (departing end of June or early July-2012).

Your compensation includes a round trip ticket from your location to Conakry and then transportation from Conakry to bafila. We provide housing and food. You will gain the unvaluable experience of cultural immersion. We will also pay you $$ (to be negotiated) after the trip and delivery of your report.

See below the requirements for our open positions.

Note: The consultants are expected to use standard methodologies for the studies and to provide the deliverables within a week after the trip.

Micro Hydrologist consultant (position is open, currently taking applications): this person will do a technical feasibility study of the rivers with regard to their suitability for a micro hydropower plant that will serve the village (population 200 to 300 households). The deliverable of the study is a report that contains a recommendation on the best site for the plant and the reason for such a choice. The report will also provide a detailled assessment of the risks involved and steps to take to minimize those risks.

The right candidate would have a demonstrated practical hydrology experience.

Socio-environmentalist consultant (position is open, currently taking applications): This person will do a technical environment impact study of the potential micro hydropower plant sites. Additionally, the consultant will make recommendations on ways to install a micro hydropower plant with minimal disruption to the wild life and the social life of the village people. Please note, we are not asking you to tell us how people should live there but rather how we can bring them electricity while respecting their way of life. We expect this consultant to find a balance between advocacy for the environment and the practical need of the people. While an international experience may be helpful for this job, it is not a requirement.

Rural economic development consultant (position is open, currently taking applications):

This consultant will explore and prioritize ways in which the village can capitalize on the availability of electricity in order to lay down the foundation of a sustainable economy. The consultant will document the current economy of the village (production system, trade with neighbooring villages and the city, etc.) and offer an optimization model that will integrate electricity in the economic system. The consultant is expected to provide the rational for at least 5 practical and feasible small enterprise ideas that will have the most impact on the village's economic growth. The consultant will include an assessment of the village's labor pool in the rational.

The consultant is also expected to provide projection of the village's gdp growth over 5 years following the installation of the micro hydropower plant.

We have the following contract opportunities. Contact us (include resume or website) if you are interested and we will call you for an interview if your background is a good match.

Site visit team:

We are planning a trip to the village with a team of micro hydropower project experts. The duration of the trip is two weeks (departing end of June or early July-2012).

Your compensation includes a round trip ticket from your location to Conakry and then transportation from Conakry to bafila. We provide housing and food. You will gain the unvaluable experience of cultural immersion. We will also pay you $$ (to be negotiated) after the trip and delivery of your report.

See below the requirements for our open positions.

Note: The consultants are expected to use standard methodologies for the studies and to provide the deliverables within a week after the trip.

Micro Hydrologist consultant (position is open, currently taking applications): this person will do a technical feasibility study of the rivers with regard to their suitability for a micro hydropower plant that will serve the village (population 200 to 300 households). The deliverable of the study is a report that contains a recommendation on the best site for the plant and the reason for such a choice. The report will also provide a detailled assessment of the risks involved and steps to take to minimize those risks.

The right candidate would have a demonstrated practical hydrology experience.

Socio-environmentalist consultant (position is open, currently taking applications): This person will do a technical environment impact study of the potential micro hydropower plant sites. Additionally, the consultant will make recommendations on ways to install a micro hydropower plant with minimal disruption to the wild life and the social life of the village people. Please note, we are not asking you to tell us how people should live there but rather how we can bring them electricity while respecting their way of life. We expect this consultant to find a balance between advocacy for the environment and the practical need of the people. While an international experience may be helpful for this job, it is not a requirement.

Rural economic development consultant (position is open, currently taking applications):

This consultant will explore and prioritize ways in which the village can capitalize on the availability of electricity in order to lay down the foundation of a sustainable economy. The consultant will document the current economy of the village (production system, trade with neighbooring villages and the city, etc.) and offer an optimization model that will integrate electricity in the economic system. The consultant is expected to provide the rational for at least 5 practical and feasible small enterprise ideas that will have the most impact on the village's economic growth. The consultant will include an assessment of the village's labor pool in the rational.

The consultant is also expected to provide projection of the village's gdp growth over 5 years following the installation of the micro hydropower plant.

Hello,

Bringing electricity to the village is a noble cause. However, there is this big elephant in the room that I have tried to ignore for many years. Sometimes, I would rather drown in the ocean than talk about it: the almighty dollar. Over the last decade, I worked tirelessly with the hope that one day I would save enough money to realize this goal. It turns out, my employers paid me just enough to not drop dead. In the process, I lost two people that are dearest to my heart.

My grand mother who raised me in the village, passed away in 2002. I stayed strong and kept going hoping that one day I would get a bigger paycheck to be able to bring electricity to my village.

Then, I started caring for my father in 2009.  He had heart attack twice and I was able to save his life. From 2009 to 2011, he kept asking me to come visit even for one day. I always told him I will come. To be honest, I was ashamed to come see him with nothing to show for my 12 years of absence. In reality, he did not care, he just wanted to see me. On november 28th of 2011, he had another heart attack and he did not survive this time.

As hypocritical as this might sound, I found a way to fly to Africa within 2 days to bury him. This is the biggest regret of my life. Now when I look back at all the opportunities I had to go visit him just for a weekend, I cannot put in words the sadness I feel. If you are reading this and still have both or one of your parents alive, I beg you, please stop right here and attend to their needs. Nothing in this world will replace them and when they are gone, they are REALLY GONE FOREVER. No matter what issue you have with them or with yourself, get over it for your own well being.

Back to the elephant in the room, now I find myself sitting here, wasted 12 years in corporate rate race, lost the two most important people in my life and I still need funds to get this micro hydro project done.

One thing I know for sure is that, while it is good to be optimistic, I also need to be realistic and honest with myself. The reality is, I do not see any possible way a full time position can make this happen. At the same time, I need a full time job to keep my head above water so that I can get going. But again, full time job steals the best available time I have. I am sure I am not alone in this situation, but I thought I would share in case you felt you were the only one struggling with it.

Now, I have looked at all the options on the table.

 - Create a nonprofit: this involves a big load of bureaucracy just to have a licence to beg. I honestly don't think I am good at begging.

- Expand my current business: I have a small computer programming and data mining company. Pretty much, I lock myself into 6 months to one year contract and then find another contract after that. This is my big problem right here. Data mining business model requires physical presence all the time as the clients prefer to have the contractor onsite to work with their data.

- Find another business model: unless you can get funding for a breakthrough technology, it is getting harder and harder for computer programmers to make it without a full time job. Besides, I am running out of time to spend another decade trying a new business model.

- Cut to the chase: At the end of the day, what I really want is to bring electricity to this village. If I can accomplish this, I will leave this earth with a peace of mind. So instead of spending my time on all these circumvoluted ways to get there, I am going to cut to the chase. I will find ways to provide value to people who will help me get this done.

You may wonder why electricity in this village. Well, the tradition in the village is that people have kids and as soon as the children reach school age, they are sent to the city. The eldery are left behind. If the village had electricity, it would have had an education system up to high school at least and I would not have needed to leave my grand mother behind. I would have been there when she needed me the most as she was there when I needed her. If I can help future generations spend more time with their parents and grand parents and ease the suffering of the village people by partially solving their energy problem, I will be happy to leave this planet and rejoin my ancestors.

If you have ideas that I can use to provide value to people so that they can contribute financially without me begging, please let me know. Thank you!

Hello,

Bringing electricity to the village is a noble cause. However, there is this big elephant in the room that I have tried to ignore for many years. Sometimes, I would rather drown in the ocean than talk about it: the almighty dollar. Over the last decade, I worked tirelessly with the hope that one day I would save enough money to realize this goal. It turns out, my employers paid me just enough to not drop dead. In the process, I lost two people that are dearest to my heart.

My grand mother who raised me in the village, passed away in 2002. I stayed strong and kept going hoping that one day I would get a bigger paycheck to be able to bring electricity to my village.

Then, I started caring for my father in 2009.  He had heart attack twice and I was able to save his life. From 2009 to 2011, he kept asking me to come visit even for one day. I always told him I will come. To be honest, I was ashamed to come see him with nothing to show for my 12 years of absence. In reality, he did not care, he just wanted to see me. On november 28th of 2011, he had another heart attack and he did not survive this time.

As hypocritical as this might sound, I found a way to fly to Africa within 2 days to bury him. This is the biggest regret of my life. Now when I look back at all the opportunities I had to go visit him just for a weekend, I cannot put in words the sadness I feel. If you are reading this and still have both or one of your parents alive, I beg you, please stop right here and attend to their needs. Nothing in this world will replace them and when they are gone, they are REALLY GONE FOREVER. No matter what issue you have with them or with yourself, get over it for your own well being.

Back to the elephant in the room, now I find myself sitting here, wasted 12 years in corporate rate race, lost the two most important people in my life and I still need funds to get this micro hydro project done.

One thing I know for sure is that, while it is good to be optimistic, I also need to be realistic and honest with myself. The reality is, I do not see any possible way a full time position can make this happen. At the same time, I need a full time job to keep my head above water so that I can get going. But again, full time job steals the best available time I have. I am sure I am not alone in this situation, but I thought I would share in case you felt you were the only one struggling with it.

Now, I have looked at all the options on the table.

 - Create a nonprofit: this involves a big load of bureaucracy just to have a licence to beg. I honestly don't think I am good at begging.

- Expand my current business: I have a small computer programming and data mining company. Pretty much, I lock myself into 6 months to one year contract and then find another contract after that. This is my big problem right here. Data mining business model requires physical presence all the time as the clients prefer to have the contractor onsite to work with their data.

- Find another business model: unless you can get funding for a breakthrough technology, it is getting harder and harder for computer programmers to make it without a full time job. Besides, I am running out of time to spend another decade trying a new business model.

- Cut to the chase: At the end of the day, what I really want is to bring electricity to this village. If I can accomplish this, I will leave this earth with a peace of mind. So instead of spending my time on all these circumvoluted ways to get there, I am going to cut to the chase. I will find ways to provide value to people who will help me get this done.

You may wonder why electricity in this village. Well, the tradition in the village is that people have kids and as soon as the children reach school age, they are sent to the city. The eldery are left behind. If the village had electricity, it would have had an education system up to high school at least and I would not have needed to leave my grand mother behind. I would have been there when she needed me the most as she was there when I needed her. If I can help future generations spend more time with their parents and grand parents and ease the suffering of the village people by partially solving their energy problem, I will be happy to leave this planet and rejoin my ancestors.

If you have ideas that I can use to provide value to people so that they can contribute financially without me begging, please let me know. Thank you!

Hello,

I spoke to my brother and he will go film the 4 rivers. He does not have the technical skills to measure the characteristics of the rivers and he does not speak english. So, I am providing a guide on how to take the videos in order to give you a better assessment of the hydro potential in each river.

I am organizing the videos in sections. Each section will start with a title on one piece of paper.

First, he will film our dad's house to show where consultants will be staying during the site visit.

Second, for each river he will film the following aspects:

1.An overview of the river area, to show how big the river is.

2.Finding the head: he will attemp to find the head. These rivers are long, so he may not be able to find one. But he will show the direction of water flow.

3.The speed: to get a general idea of the water speed. He will put something on the river and let it move from point A to point B. The lenght has not been decided yet.

4.The depth: He will show a sign to tell us whether or not the river is deeper than a certain lenght. What's the ideal depth?

5.If he has time, he will film the daily life of the village people.

When he's done, we will see if it is cheaper to send them by mail or if it is possible to upload them in the city. I expect to have these videos by next week. Can you imagine? Over here, one smart phone will do the job in a couple of hours almost free. Over there, I have to pay someone ($36 usd) with a camera to go do the video of the rivers. Well, if I had to hire a profesional for a video in New York the cost would be much higher. But again, the videos would of a better quality.

Let me know if I am missing any useful details.

Hello,

I spoke to my brother and he will go film the 4 rivers. He does not have the technical skills to measure the characteristics of the rivers and he does not speak english. So, I am providing a guide on how to take the videos in order to give you a better assessment of the hydro potential in each river.

I am organizing the videos in sections. Each section will start with a title on one piece of paper.

First, he will film our dad's house to show where consultants will be staying during the site visit.

Second, for each river he will film the following aspects:

1.An overview of the river area, to show how big the river is.

2.Finding the head: he will attemp to find the head. These rivers are long, so he may not be able to find one. But he will show the direction of water flow.

3.The speed: to get a general idea of the water speed. He will put something on the river and let it move from point A to point B. The lenght has not been decided yet.

4.The depth: He will show a sign to tell us whether or not the river is deeper than a certain lenght. What's the ideal depth?

5.If he has time, he will film the daily life of the village people.

When he's done, we will see if it is cheaper to send them by mail or if it is possible to upload them in the city. I expect to have these videos by next week. Can you imagine? Over here, one smart phone will do the job in a couple of hours almost free. Over there, I have to pay someone ($36 usd) with a camera to go do the video of the rivers. Well, if I had to hire a profesional for a video in New York the cost would be much higher. But again, the videos would of a better quality.

Let me know if I am missing any useful details.

Hello,

There are a couple of ways to bringing energy to the village.

It can be done by bootstraping, that is, using local labor and building the capacity before the power plant. We will need to find experts here for feasibility study, then send them again to train people to build the plant and actually build the plant. Follow up again with another training for plant maintenance.

Another possibility is to enlist an institution that has experience in the field.

The institution will colaborate with the village people to build the plant and then transfer technology over time. This approach will require significant capital investment. For now, we do not have a clear idea what level of funds will be required. I have found this australian institution for instance (http://www.apace.uts.edu.au/index.html) but they did not provide the costs of the projects that they have done. I have sent them an email. Another institution that I have contacted is http://www.caiworld.com.

If you know similar institutions that operate in Africa, please post them in the comment section so that I can contact them. Meanwhile, I will keep looking for them online.

As someone suggested, a third approach is to form a nonprofit micro hydropower school to train people in the village. This will involve alot of bureaucracy and will be very time consuming as I already a full time job to attend to as well.

I think that to build a long lasting and sustainable micro hydropower plant, it is better to engage a micro hydro agency. The results can be achieved faster and technology transfer will follow. If you know such an agency, please send me their information. Thank you!

Hello,

There are a couple of ways to bringing energy to the village.

It can be done by bootstraping, that is, using local labor and building the capacity before the power plant. We will need to find experts here for feasibility study, then send them again to train people to build the plant and actually build the plant. Follow up again with another training for plant maintenance.

Another possibility is to enlist an institution that has experience in the field.

The institution will colaborate with the village people to build the plant and then transfer technology over time. This approach will require significant capital investment. For now, we do not have a clear idea what level of funds will be required. I have found this australian institution for instance (http://www.apace.uts.edu.au/index.html) but they did not provide the costs of the projects that they have done. I have sent them an email. Another institution that I have contacted is http://www.caiworld.com.

If you know similar institutions that operate in Africa, please post them in the comment section so that I can contact them. Meanwhile, I will keep looking for them online.

As someone suggested, a third approach is to form a nonprofit micro hydropower school to train people in the village. This will involve alot of bureaucracy and will be very time consuming as I already a full time job to attend to as well.

I think that to build a long lasting and sustainable micro hydropower plant, it is better to engage a micro hydro agency. The results can be achieved faster and technology transfer will follow. If you know such an agency, please send me their information. Thank you!

Initially, I wanted to bring 1 or 2 experts with me to visit the village and identify the best site possible. I was advised from various discussion groups that this option will be costly. I have asked me brother to contact some of my friends in the city to find someone who can measure the head and discharge of the various rivers. My brother told me that there are 4 rivers that never dry. The village is however flat, no mountain. Below are the coordinates of the village: Lat 9.46162; Lon -13.226061. Elv 19ft. The name of the village is Gbereyire Bafila.

Please take a look and let me know what are the options for a flat terrain.

My brother will get back to me in the second week of January as he is busy tending to some business left over by our father. Between now and then, I will keep going here learning more about Micro Hydropower both online and offline. If you have a site around New York that I can visit, let me know. For those who have invited me to their site, thank you. I will make travel arrangements soon.

At this point, the following are the steps I have in mind:

1) Get the measurements from various rivers: get the speed and the depth (repeated measurements) along with a video of the rivers. I should post these numbers by end of Jan-2012.

2) Once the numbers are in, I will let people opine and narrow the list of rivers to 1 or two.

3) The next step is to travel there, preferably before July (to avoid the rainy season): If you are interested to come visit, let me know in advance so that I can plan the trip properly. Due to the cost of flight, the number of visitors will be limited.

The comment section below is for you to give feedback on this article. No registration required, though I monitor it to filter the spams. If you would rather contact me privately, please use the contact form.

Thank you.

Initially, I wanted to bring 1 or 2 experts with me to visit the village and identify the best site possible. I was advised from various discussion groups that this option will be costly. I have asked me brother to contact some of my friends in the city to find someone who can measure the head and discharge of the various rivers. My brother told me that there are 4 rivers that never dry. The village is however flat, no mountain. Below are the coordinates of the village: Lat 9.46162; Lon -13.226061. Elv 19ft. The name of the village is Gbereyire Bafila.

Please take a look and let me know what are the options for a flat terrain.

My brother will get back to me in the second week of January as he is busy tending to some business left over by our father. Between now and then, I will keep going here learning more about Micro Hydropower both online and offline. If you have a site around New York that I can visit, let me know. For those who have invited me to their site, thank you. I will make travel arrangements soon.

At this point, the following are the steps I have in mind:

1) Get the measurements from various rivers: get the speed and the depth (repeated measurements) along with a video of the rivers. I should post these numbers by end of Jan-2012.

2) Once the numbers are in, I will let people opine and narrow the list of rivers to 1 or two.

3) The next step is to travel there, preferably before July (to avoid the rainy season): If you are interested to come visit, let me know in advance so that I can plan the trip properly. Due to the cost of flight, the number of visitors will be limited.

The comment section below is for you to give feedback on this article. No registration required, though I monitor it to filter the spams. If you would rather contact me privately, please use the contact form.

Thank you.