[Peripherals] Alternitive Power for Developing Countries

Mon May 5 20:06:55 EDT 2008

Hello Alfonso,

According to all the information from 3 or 4 different solar pannel 
manufacturers you will get JUST 5% to 20% of the intended total energy 
when you use the solar pannels in "not full sunny" days.  That means a 
huge extra cost to provide enough energy to the XOs: we will need to 
multiply the number of solar panels from 5 to 20 times to guarantee that 
we will reach this or that energy level.

In thousands of our towns and villages, that are located over the 3,500 
meters altitude, there are 4 months that are reported (by the machines 
that read this data) as "100% cloudy". 

The best recommendation that I have found is to measure the total light 
(sun) in a given period of time: months. (our worst time, and our 
worries, are centered from December to March).  That is a reason why I 
am building a list (that will be a public list) with this info because I 
think it will help many people that needs to take poltiical decisions.  
This list will be updated weekly and data will be colected.  In this way 
we will learn how much sun exist in every one of our 80,000 villages and 
towns located in our whole country (well.... in fact the measurement can 
be done for ANY worldwide location, if someone needs that I build extra 
data for some location, just tell me).

Regards,

Javier Rodriguez
Lima, Peru

Alfonso de la Guarda wrote:
> Hello,
>
> In the COS (www.cos-la.org <http://www.cos-la.org>), we are working 
> some months ago in some options for that, specially with a portable 
> solar panel trying to reduce their cost (about 60 dollars each).  The 
> device -commercially available as cell charger- is really small and 
> can charge the XO without any problems.  In a field test in Junin and 
> Arahuay (Perú) the panels works great, in fact, in the recent event of 
> FLISOL in Huancayo (Junin-Peru) for the OLPC project, we test the 
> solution (commercial) between 3400 mts and 4500 mts (Ticlio).  Antonio 
> Ramirez, Carlos Reinoso and who writes now are working in our breaks 
> on this task (reduce the cost for about 25 dollars each).
>
>
>
>
> 2008/5/5 Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com 
> <mailto:cbigenho at hotmail.com>>:
>
>     Hello Javier Rodriguez and, all the other folks on the peripherals
>     list,
>
>     After seeing the creative things Arjun Sarwal is doing with
>     cow-power in India, I started thinking of other possibilities. I
>     remembered my grandmother's old treadle sewing machine and how
>     excited she was to have it electrified.  Later, I saw many being
>     used 35 years ago in regions in the Yucatan where there was no
>     electricity.
>
>     Here is a link to a picture of what they look like.  It is the one
>     on the left.
>
>     http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/Trade%2DLiterature/Sewing%2DMachines/
>
>     Many of these machines still exist.  i see them at estate auctions
>     every summer in Montana.  There must be thousands throughout the
>     world.  I have twice tried bidding on just the treadle mechanism
>     of one on ebay. I lost out on the bidding for both, but have hopes
>     of finding one in Montana this summer.
>
>     When I get one, I intend to try to set it up as a combination
>     desk/power source to run an XO.  If it works and doesn't cost too
>     much to set up, it might be something that could be replicated all
>     over the world where these old machines still exist...some
>     probably still being used without electricity.
>
>     Javier, have you seen any of these machines in rural Peru?  Are
>     they still being used to sew?  Would there be a need to try to
>     design it to continue to be used as a sewing machine but to
>     generate power at the same time?
>
>     It might also be possible to manufacture a similar mechanism, at a
>     modest cost.  But, the idea of recycling the old ones has a lot of
>     appeal. I was also wondering if an old automobile generator could
>     be adapted to work with it.  Perhaps it would require too much
>     torque to work.
>
>     It may be just a crazy idea, but if cow-power works, maybe this
>     will too. If and when I do this project, I will probably need some
>     advice from you folks.  Any suggestions for starters?
>
>     Caryl
>
>     BTW, Could AJ's Cow-power generator be adapted to run on Llama
>     power?  How about donkey power?  Goat power?
>
>     _______________________________________________
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>     http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/peripherals
>
>
>
>
> -- 
>
> --------------------------------
> Alfonso de la Guarda
> COS
> www.cos-la.org <http://www.cos-la.org>
> www.delaguarda.info <http://www.delaguarda.info>
> Telef. 97550914
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