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RAEL is designing and implementing low-carbon energy microgrids for Necker and Moskito Islands in the BVI. The natural resources available at Necker and Moskito present an excellent opportunity to move towards renewable electric power generation. In addition to the immediate local environmental benefits, powering these islands from renewable sources could meet many social goals.

We offer our consulting services as a research lab by creating renewable energy resource maps. We are using ESRI’s GIS visualization software, ArcMap to create maps of the energy resources in a given location along with geographic and political land exclusions. Work is currently underway on creating a regional wind energy blueprint for Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands area. This blueprint consists of both a comprehensive assessment of the potential for wind power in the region and also a rigorous discussion of how to best promote this resource's utilization. The gross and technical potential as well as top wind farm sites are being quantified using a wind mapping tool developed in RAEL. Future plans to create a similar blueprint for Alameda and Marin Counties are being discussed.

Image: Clip of Wind Resource Map in Santa Barbara County, CA

Contact: Dan Prull

Small-scale wind turbines help address a global need for cheap, reliable distributed energy. The market for these small (0.1 -10 kW) turbines ranges from remote off-grid locations to residential systems and grid-tied commercial applications. In recent years, the wind market has seen a rapid increase with a 28% annual growth rate and over 60 GW of installed capacity worldwide. However, small wind turbines only account for an estimated 30 MW or 0.05% of this capacity.

The project's goal is to promote sustainable biomass energy management for positive economic development in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. Although its focus is on Eastern Zimbabwe, if successful it promises to be a model for the integration of large-scale and community/household-scale sustainable biomass energy and ecological management in a number of developing nations. The project will consist of testing, evaluating, and implementing methods for sustainable power generation using the wood waste produced by large, medium and small sawmills operating in the Manicaland region, near the border of Mozambique. Currently, over 70,000 tons of this biomass waste is produced annually. The project's principal objectives will be to examine the technical and economic feasibility of the available alternative biomass energy generation technologies, their effect on the forest-management practices, and the social implications for this region.

In this project we evaluated the performance and condition of single junction amorphous silicon (a-Si) modules used in PV systems installed in Kenya, and used this opportunity to provide additional training and market analysis opportunities for local East African renewable energy entrepreneurs. We carefully surveyed a-Si PV systems and measured PV module performance in each site. We analyzed the data in order to establish the survival rate and performance of a-Si modules in field operating conditions and to identify equipment and institutional options that could benefit the private PV industry and the end-user community in East Africa. We are sharing the results with solar rural electrification projects, manufacturers, dealers and end-users as well as the international development community through publications, correspondence, and regional workshops.

Image: Rural Kenyan woman holding her amorphous silicon photovoltaic panel

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