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The Namche Conference: May 24-26,
2003
Sessions Report |
Session 6: Workshops in Green Technology Presenters: Sjoerd Nienhuys and Joseph Wenisch Presentation by Sjoerd Nienhuys Sjoerd Nienhuys is an engineer working for SNV-Nepal. His presentation was structured in two parts. The first one was a general introduction to renewable energies and its uses. The second part went into details on thermal insulation of buildings, solar water heaters, and greenhouses. General Information The increase in the number of tourists and the local population has increased the use of firewood. Firewood is used for cooking, water heating, and space heating. Firewood used for cooking purposes can be replaced with kerosene, gas or electricity. Improved stoves have proved not to be efficient at high altitudes. Another way of decreasing the wood used while preparing food is to use a pressure cooker and insulation of the stove. Although solar cookers can be used, this is a technology that still needs improving (esp. in terms of cooking time) to become competitive. For heating water, solar water heaters are usually the best option. To reduce the amount of heat loss during transportation, water pipes should be insulated. The biggest firewood savers at high altitude are the use of solar water heaters and the thermal insulation of buildings. The higher we get, the bigger the firewood consumption is because the generation of firewood decreases with altitude. This big imbalance between firewood production and consumption needs to be fixed. There are two possible solutions: 1) increase the “natural production” or 2) decrease the firewood usage. Thermal Insulation A house can be insulated from outside or inside. Outside insulation is expensive; inside insulation is the best way to go. However, if the roof is not insulated, there is no point in spending money to insulate any other parts of the house. v To have a successful insulation system, the following aspects should be considered: 1) Avoid holes or other heat transmitters. Insulate the roof 2) Insulate the rock walls 3) Keep the roof dry 4) Insulate the ceiling 5) Keep the floor dry 6) Insulate the floor A very interesting way of insulating the roof and reduce the plastic bottle waste that Sjoerd proposed was to use empty plastic water bottles. The air inside them helps prevent heat from leaving the house. The plastic bottles should be placed touching the internal side of the roof. To insulate walls using locally available materials one can use bamboo mats: first the walls should be covered with plastic and then place the bamboo mat on top. For esthetic reasons, the wall can be finally covered with cement. By doing this the heat lost can be reduced by 50%. Windows are another major heat loss item. An easy insulation way is the use of curtains: one has to make sure that the cloth covers the window surface completely. SNV is working with WWF-Nepal to select some households in the Khumbu area and demonstrate the different insulation possibilities. Questions (Bruce Jefferies) The fire stove is a very important part of the Sherpa culture. How do locals feel about the new technologies replacing the stove? A: The new technologies can help reduce the amount of firewood consumption. This doesn’t mean that the stoves cannot be used. (Brenda Platt) What should be the material used for the curtains? A: The thicker the better. Even a thin piece of cloth is better than nothing. (Margaret Jefferies) In some areas the construction standards are very poor so most of the insulation techniques cannot be implemented. A: The holes (in walls ...) can be covered with plastic. There could be an extra inside glass frame, an extra outside insulating shutter, one fixed large glass panel and an inside glass frame. The key issue is to view waste as a reusable material. Solar Water Heaters Hot water is used for cooking and also for showering. 10-15 MW of the energy generated in Nepal is obtained from the sun. The cost of solar energy is 10 times less than that of micro-hydro. In the Annapurna area there has been some investment in solar water heaters. However, the quality is very poor and the results haven’t been good. Also, the installations were not well done so efficiency was down to 15%. One of the problems of solar water heaters is that the production has been left to the private industry and the only makers are micro-enterprises. Unfortunately they don’t have money to invest on research. There should be a table to tell people how many square meters they need to fully cover their lodge water consumption when it’s full. One of the problems of the solar water heaters in high altitude is that water can freeze in the winter. To prevent this, double glass should be used. Pipes also need insulation and the water tank can be stored inside the building. There should be an association of solar water heater makers so they can help each other improve by: - Setting manufacturing standards - making sure all systems are properly installed - offering service (manuals/instructions) Ang Dorje pointed out that some lodges (Everest View Hotel, Camp de Base) had installed solar water heaters and they never worked right. Also the pipes broke. Sjoerd repeated that the installations weren’t probably well designed and the pipes should have been insulated. Greenhouses A greenhouse is a source of passive solar energy. To make a greenhouse effective in the mountains people have to be trained to know what and how to grow the food. If a good use is made, greenhouses can supply locals with a bigger variety of food that won’t need to be brought from outside. One of the big challenges is to avoid flipping of the plastic. The answer is to build round greenhouses with the help of bamboo sticks. To make a greenhouse work in a hard winter, one can build an inside mud wall. This wall will absorb the heat during the day and release it during the night. There is also the possibility of setting an inner curtain. Of course, these solutions increase the cost of the greenhouse. It is a matter of balance: “what do we want and at what price?” People with lower incomes can also afford a greenhouse. An association of farmers can be created and then establish a specific loan contract in which the provider gets their money back by helping the farmers to market their products. Presentation by Joseph Wenisch Joe had lived in Nepal for 7 month. He was in a scholarship from Colorado University teaching engineering students. He has been interviewing local people around the country to find out what works and what doesn’t and why. The first thing he noticed in Khumbu is that people in Namche and around it relay on the Khumbu Bijuli Company (KBC). Elsewhere they use photovoltaic (PV) panels. The price of the PV installations he saw ranged from Rs. 15000 ($200) to Rs. 150000 ($2000). The main problems that he found were: - Most panels were made in China and their quality was low. High quality PV panels can be found in Kathmandu - People don’t spend a lot of money on batteries. Most times they use a car/truck battery. These low-quality batteries have a short life (especially the car batteries which are not designed to be discharged) and always turn into an environmental problem. Wind energy hasn’t been used so much in Nepal because there was a big failure of a project in Pokhara. In the Himalayan Rescue Association in Periche they use a mix system: a wind turbine and solar panels. This way one can achieve a good result: when the sun is not out, the wind can provide the energy. At the Eco-lodge in Lobuche the wind turbine that was installed failed because the owners of the lodge installed it themselves and they didn’t know what they were doing. Joe proposed a way to reduce the bottled water consumption: in the Annapurna Area local village committees use ozone purification tanks. Joe pointed out the following measures/recommendations: - Renewable energies are not used in Khumbu because there is a lack of information. He thinks fact sheets on appropriate technologies should be provided. - New buildings should be insulated. - Training sessions on renewable energies should be established in Namche. - Renewable energies should be introduced to children. They need to be integrated in the curriculum. One of the tricky parts is that the information given to locals should be in the local language (Sherpa or Nepali) and made easy. The problem is that most translators are not technical and some times they make things more difficult. Questions/Comments on energy (Sjoerd) SNV is trying to establish demonstration projects. In them, they will not only inform of the various energy possibilities but also on the benefits. They have problems, however, trying to explain the benefit of thermal insulation when it is comfort – which cannot be economically measured. Another source difficult to quantify from an economic point of view is firewood. Wood is “free,” one just has to pay for a porter to cut it and then bring it up to Namche. However, there is the ecological cost. A strict park management would ensure that no wood is cut – all wood should be bought. (Greta) Public health is an issue that shouldn’t be forgotten. Most diseases come from sanitation or from the source of energy one uses. A decrease in the use of firewood (and therefore the use of RET) will benefit public health. (Ang Dorje) The electricity in Namche is managed by the users’ group. It costs Rs. 100 per KW. If they start using solar water heaters, the price at which they sale hot water to tourists will go down and the lodge owners will lose money. The electricity company will lose money. To this comment, Sjoerd answered that currently the people are paying half-price the real cost of the electricity produced in Thamo. Locals should not think of the energy produce by the micro-hydro as an inexhaustible source. If it doesn’t get use wisely, Namche will require another plant soon and there will be no money for it. The trick is to think in the long term; what will happen in the next 10-15 years. (Pema Gyamtsho) KBC should also think of investing in alternative energy systems. (Dinesh Bhuju) Indigenous capacity building is a key point in each local community. It could help to prevent brain drain. (General comments) We should be talking about affordability, which is an issue for mountain people. Batteries cannot be easily recycled, especially in Nepal. Quality renewable energy appliances could be sold by SPCC. This way they could generate some income.
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