Background

Background/Motivation

An introduction to Dominica video taken at our micro-hydro training workshop in December 2004, Professor Gary Flomenhoft is the speaker:

Introduction to Dominica (237 MB)

A collection of 8 students went to an island in the Caribbean, Dominica to build a micro-hydro system that will serve as an renewable/alternative energy source for the Springfield Center for Environmental Protection, Research, and Education (SCEPTRE). The reason for this research is to give SCEPTRE an alternative energy supply other than relying solely on the grid and to demonstrate a type of renewable energy widely available on the island. On the island there is a monopolizing power company and costs for energy are normally very high.

This project actually began in 2001 with a workshop on the island entitled “Sustainable Tourism in Small Islands of the Caribbean”. In that workshop challenges, strategies, and mechanisms to promoting a tourism regime that addressed issues of poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development were examined. During that trip it was found out that Dominica, has overwhelming renewable energy resources including hydro, solar, wind, biomass, and even geothermal. However, these resources are fairly undeveloped with 60% of the electricity being produced from diesel generators, with the other 40% coming from one medium sized hydro plant. Because of these issues electricity bills in Dominica are approximately 2-3 times the normal rate in the US. It was felt that micro-hydro would allow people in Dominica to reduce their energy bills, reduce pollution from diesel combustion, take control of their energy supply using local resources, and improve the trade balance of the country.

Dominica, like most Caribbean countries, has a big trade deficit so it is important that the micro-hydro be exploited as the most affordable type of renewable electricity per unit of output. A workshop was conducted in February of 2003 on micro-hydro electricity production and that is where this project began. In March of 2004, students from UVM went to Dominica to collect data and begin taking the necessary steps to build the micro-hydro system by choosing the location of the turbine, building a base for the turbine, and choosing components.

The goal is to fly down to Dominica at the end of December and over a 3 week period assemble and install a working micro-hydro system to supply power to SCEPTRE. The hope is that SCEPTRE will rely partly on the micro-hydro system and partly on the grid. The aim of the project is to have a micro-hydro system in place that will save SCEPTRE about $10 a day for their power, which will mean that the system will have paid for itself in 1-2 year’s time. The micro-hydro system that we are to build should last at least 20 years.

This micro-hydro system is to be built with a water turbine that has already been selected. Hundreds of hours of research time have already been expended in preparation for this project. This includes communication between faculty, SCEPTRE, Clemson, and EWB-Syracuse to coordinate the installation. It also includes ongoing fund raising efforts. Most importantly there has been extensive engineering discussions with technical representatives of Sahyadri Energy Systems Private Limited in India and Maryland on turbine and component selection. Technical training has also been scheduled for Dec 19th. Last year’s students who went to Dominica to start on this project have already selected a spot for the water turbine to go and an intake tank has already been built in anticipation of the arrival of the micro-hydro system. There have also been calculations done to assure that the micro-hydro system will work in the area. When the students went to the island last year they calculated flow rate and head and were able to calculate exactly how much power the water turbine would be able to create. They found that given the calculated flow rate and head that they would yield a potential energy of about 27KWH/day. This is more than 1/3 of the total electricity that SCEPTRE uses.

Springfield’s current power usage, 60 – 100 kWh/day:

Daily average: 68 kWh

Monthly average: 2040 kWh

Monthly Bill (.32 *USD/kWh) $653 (US) $1632 (**EC)

Range: $576 - $960 (US, monthly)

Savings Range: $230 - $346 (US, monthly)

Monthly Bill After Savings: $346 - $614 (US, monthly)

*USD = US Dollar

*EC - Eastern Caribbean Currency = 2.5(USD)

It is strongly believed that once there is a running micro-hydro system, only then will this create a domino effect on the actual implementation of micro-hydro systems and making it widespread in Dominica. This project has the potential to not only supply SCEPTRE with some alleviation on their electric bill, but should also show people on the island that there is an alternative source of energy available that may be cheaper and cleaner than diesel with a small investment. The system that we are building should pay for itself in 1-2 years. If a similar turbine were to be bought for a smaller building needing less electricity it could even take less time. After this time the turbine will be purely profitable.