Tanzania (2007, 2005, 1995)


In 2007, the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) asked SELF to bring solar power to four rural health centers in the Masasi District of Tanzania: in Chiwale, Mangaka, Michiga and Nanyumbu; and additionally a dispensary at Masuguru. As part of the implementation, SELF trained a cadre of local men and women as solar technicians, equipping the project for long-term sustainability.

The Jane Goodall Institute's Gombe Stream Research Centre on the shores of Lake Tanganyika is over 30 years old, but it still looks like a summer camp. All the scattered buildings are very basic. There is no glass in the windows (only the research center has shutters), and the wire mesh doesn't manage to keep out mamba snakes. Nor was there any reliable electricity until 2005 when the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) installed a "baboon-proof" photovoltaic system designed to operate lights, computers, a fridge for vaccines and anti-snake venom, and a small water pumping system for a tree nursery.

Our work in Tanzania began in 1995, with the Ilaramatak Lolkonerei Integrated Pastoralist Survival Program (OIPSP), a rural Maasai pastoralist organization, SELF introduced many families to the benefit of solar lighting, trained additional Maasai technicians, and provided a solar powered HF radio for internal communications throughout Maasailand.

2007

Until recently, the HIV/AIDS epidemic looked nearly impossible to address in developing countries, where the annual cost of treating people with anti-retrovirals (ARVs) was over $500 per year, often more than a family's annual income.

In the face of such costs, many countries were barely treating those in urban areas, let alone in undeveloped rural regions. Over the last few years, strides have been made in reducing the cost of ARVs for developing countries.

With the Clinton Foundation leading the way to cut prices by 80% or more, it is now possible to reach millions of additional people.

In rural Tanzania, the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) is working to increase access to antiretrovirals and basic health care. A central element of success is reliable electricity for refrigeration of vaccines and medicines, bright lighting for childbirth and other medical procedures, and recordkeeping with computers (critical in administering complex regimes like those that accompany HIV treatment ). By improving the quality of life, dependable power can also help retain rural healthcare workers who might otherwise be lured to the city.

Absent grid electricity in much of rural Tanzania, there are stopgap solutions like kerosene lamps, car batteries, and diesel generators. All are fraught with problems kerosene and diesel in particular, since fossil fuels are subject to wild price swings and contribute to global warming. Additionally, kerosene lamps are a fire hazard, and diesel generators are notoriously unreliable.

Solar photovoltaics have come to be recognized as a compelling alternative, in no small part because of SELF's decade-and-a-half of model projects. SELF's record led the Clinton Foundation to ask our help in extending solar to four rural health centers in the Masasi District of Tanzania: in Chiwale, Mangaka, Michiga and Nanyumbu; and additionally a dispensary at Mauguruin. As part of the implementation, SELF trained a cadre of local men and women as solar technicians, equipping the project for long-term sustainability.

Along with this project in Tanzania, the Clinton Foundation supports similar work in Rwanda by Partners In Health (PIH), a noted NGO. At the Foundation's urging, SELF has also taken up the challenge of solar electrification of PIH's Rwandan health facilities.

2005

Researchers at Gombe Stream Research Centre (GSRC) do their fieldwork during the day, and analyze and transcribe notes after dark. The current power supply is less than modern.

"We are still using kerosene lighting and running gasoline generators in order to go about our work: processing data, running computers, editing video, things like this," said John MacLachlan, technical advisor for Jane Goodall Institute-Tanzania.

Thanks to a partnership between the Jane Goodall Institute and the SELF, solar power systems were being installed at GSRC in the research office, videography office, Jane's house and other buildings on site, as well as in Kigoma to power a water-pumping system for TACARE tree nurseries and an interactive fountain display at JGI's Education Center.

"This is an excellent use of appropriate technology and renewable energy to make our research efforts at the Gombe Stream Research Center, and our operations at the JGI-Tanzania Education Center, both more efficient and effective," said Keith Brown, Executive Vice President of Africa Programs. "It allows us to accomplish all the work we need to get done using renewable energy," MacLachlan said.

At JGI's Education Center in Kigoma, solar technology will power a pump that moves water from Lake Tanganyika to a water tank. The tank will supply water for the TACARE nurseries and for most of the Education Center's water needs. The Education Center currently uses chlorinated water from town, which is expensive. Now the facilities will be able to use lake water for 95 percent of their needs, especially for tree seedlings at the two TACARE nurseries. Additionally, a fountain at the Education Center will use solar power to teach the public about solar energy. Visitors can interact with the fountain, for example covering a solar panel to make the fountain's water pressure decrease. JGI's TACARE program offers an innovative model of community-centered conservation, which addresses human needs while promoting conservation values.

The project used cutting-edge solar technology, taking a quantum leap from the usual choice of compact fluorescent lighting to LEDs (light-emitting diodes). While compact fluorescent lighting is three times more efficient than standard lighting, LEDs use very little energy and give up to 100,000 hours of use.

“LEDs allow us to use smaller, less expensive photovoltaic systems,” explained SELF project manager Jeff Lahl. The project, which included 140 lights both at the Institute and scattered over the surrounding Gombe Stream National Park, required LEDs because the energy load would have been too high for compact fluorescent bulbs.

One challenge, Jeff said, was finding access to the sun, given the densely wooded area and lack of clearings. Because it is a national park, tree trimming was very limited. The solution was to install oversized solar modules on steel poles 14 feet above ground. Mounting and wiring the modules was slow and difficult work on ladders. John McLaughlin, technical advisor at the Institute spent a lot of time on the ladder, setting up the modules to ensure there were no exposed wires.

The greatest challenge in installing the systems was to make them baboon-proof, “so that little nimble fingers could not grasp exposed wire to hang or swing from,” Lahl explained. “One baboon troop usually moves through camp each day, and sometimes they hang out and watch."

“They love to run and thunder across the metal roofs of the research center and like to jump, sit, lie, and sleep on the few existing solar modules on the roof at the research center,” Lahl said. “They must like the smooth surface. They usually only stay on the modules for a few minutes, so there’s not big loss of power. The benefit is that their fur keeps the modules clean and dusted.”

Lahl oversaw the installation of several separate systems to avoid running a lot of wires through the jungle. Of the 16 days he spent at the institute in January 2005, he most enjoyed the three days he spent training local people before installation began. In fact, one of SELF’s objectives is to train local people to install and maintain the systems.

“Eight men and two women were trained by an excellent teacher who instructed in Swahili,” he said. “The students were very excited and couldn’t get enough. They were very hungry for education and very excited about solar energy and what it could do for their people. We had to push them out the door every night an hour after class was supposed to be over. We hired seven to help us with installation, among them two electricians and carpenter, and a mason—so we had a very good crew.”

For remote Gombe, grid electricity is a far too distant dream, with grid extension costing about $20,000 per kilometer (.6 miles)—and reliability not necessarily ensured. The researchers had been getting their light and power from a combination of candles, smoky kerosene lamps, and unreliable gas generators. The Institute’s new photovoltaic system is designed to supply electricity to operate 140 lights for five to six hours a day, and to power five computers for four hours a day. Also, the system runs an electric irrigation for a tree and shrub nursery developed by the local non-profit Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education project (TACARE). In the surrounding villages, outside of the national park, deforestation is extreme. The solar-powered pump will contribute to reversing the problems and erosion and flooding that are currently taking a sad toll.

Finally, the solar power system runs the refrigerator that contains DNA and tissue samples, medicines, snakebite anti-venom, and polio and vaccines. Polio is still present in large swaths of Africa and has in the past jumped from people to chimpanzees. Until now, the refrigerator had to run on liquefied petroleum gas, shipped more than 800 miles from Dar es Salaam (the last 15mi. 24 km by boat).

Funding for this project was supplied by The Greenville Foundation, the Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust, ConocoPhilips, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

UPDATE: check out the chimpanzee blog, direct from Gombe.

1995

Working with the Ilaramatak Lolkonerei Integrated Pastoralist Survival Program (OIPSP), a rural Maasai pastoralist organization, SELF introduced many families to the benefit of solar lighting, trained additional Maasai technicians, and provided a solar powered HF radio for internal communications throughout Maasailand.

The OIPSP was formed by Maasai pastoralists in 1991 to catalyze rural development initiatives. The group seeks to allow Maasai families to thrive in the modern world while preserving their traditional lifestyle and culture. After experiencing problems with poaching and cattle rustling throughout the far-flung Maasailand, and lacking suitable lighting for evening work and study, OIPSP realized that electricity for lighting and communications was essential to preserving their livelihood. With the electric grid almost 100 miles away, and with kerosene and dry cell batteries providing limited utility, the OIPSP searched for other electricity options. They approached the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) to request assistance in the development of an ambitious strategy to obtain solar photovoltaics (PV) for lighting and communications.

SELF helped the OIPSP to undertake a solar electrification program by helping to upgrade existing solar installations, training local Maasai men and women in PV installation, and seeding a revolving credit fund for the purchase of solar home systems (SHS) and solar lanterns. SELF also helped establish a tribally owned solar enterprise to market SHS and solar lanterns throughout Maasailand.

SELF has continued to support the OIPSP solar program. A grant from the Compton Foundation in 1995 allowed SELF to continue its solar program with the Maasai. In October, 1995, SELF helped purchase a PV lighting system for a OIPSP Community and Resource Training Center, and financed the purchase of six SHS and 32 solar lanterns which were sold on credit by Maasai entrepreneurs and installed by local technicians. Families and shop owners financed their systems through monthly payments into a revolving credit fund, which were used to pay for continued construction on the Community Resource Training Center. In addition, SELF helped the OIPSP purchase a high frequency radio telephone, allowing internal communications with two other existing HF radios in Maasailand, as well as allowing email capabilities through connection to the outside data networks in East Africa.

SELF has helped begin to bring electricity to Maasailand. While the Maasai pastoralists are interested in keeping their traditional culture, they also have a great desire to gain the benefits of modern lighting and communications. Under the direction of the OIPSP, they have "seen the light" and actively support the use of solar photovoltaics.