This short clip shows blueEnergy's energy project sites on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. The audio portion is a radio spot developed by the Bluefields Sounds System for blueEnergy and features Nicaragua Creole reggae star Kali Boom. The spot runs in Bluefields, Nicaragua on the most popular radio show on Sundays.
blueEnergy provides a low-cost, sustainable solution to the energy needs of marginalized communities through the construction, installation, and maintenance of hybrid wind and solar energy systems. By manufacturing wind turbines and other key components locally, near their point of usage, blueEnergy is able to keep energy costs low, improve equipment serviceability, and create employment where it is desperately needed.
In order to deliver a lasting solution, blueEnergy implements a business model that combines a charitable social vision of serving the poor with the technical and business sense of for-profit enterprise. blueEnergy invests heavily in developing local capacity so that its projects can be run and sustained by local people for local benefit. To ensure financial stability, blueEnergy places high priority on identifying and capturing revenue streams outside of public charity, such as commercial sales of energy systems, energy system leases, community battery charging fees, project consulting fees, and government contracts.
This innovative approach to delivering energy services provides new hope for the nearly 2 billion people globally that are without access to basic electricity service. Such service is widely considered a necessary, although not sufficient, requirement for modern economic and social development. In Nicaragua, blueEnergy's initial target country, half of the roughly 5 million inhabitants do not have access to electricity; the situation is particularly grim in the Caribbean Coast region of the country where nearly 80% of the inhabitants do not have access to electricity.
Providing energy services to marginalized communities in a sustainable way requires a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach. The physical energy system must be carefully selected to be compatible with the capabilities, culture, and environment of the project beneficiaries. However, selecting a well-matched system is merely the tip of the iceberg; much of the challenge lies in addressing the human and natural dynamics that exist in the project environment. blueEnergy is aware of the complexity of its undertaking and has identified three of its key strengths (relative to other approaches) that will allow it to succeed:
(1) blueEnergy Implements a Locally-based, Locally-workable Technology:
Other organizations and government bodies almost exclusively meet energy needs by importing foreign technology, be it diesel generators, solar panels, or wind turbines. This approach often fails due to the high cost of petroleum and the inability of local communities to maintain high-tech and/or foreign equipment. The core of blueEnergy's energy service is a low-tech wind turbine that can be built and maintained locally using largely available labor and materials. By manufacturing wind turbines and other key system components locally, near their point of usage, blueEnergy is able to keep energy costs low, improve equipment serviceability, and create employment where it is desperately needed;
(2) blueEnergy Facilitates the Creation of Community-level Energy Service Institutions:
Implementing organizations and government bodies often have a transient interest in energy services and lack expertise in the complicated field of rural electrification. This often leads to install-and-go scenarios, where projects are left without any sustainable operation and maintenance plans in place. blueEnergy brings to the table expertise, persistence, and a long-term commitment to work with project communities to develop the social and financial institutions needed to deliver lasting energy services;
(3) blueEnergy Invests in Critical Support Studies:
Whereas other projects often do very little background research into factors that affect the appropriateness of a particular energy solution, blueEnergy invests a significant amount of effort into critical support studies. These studies include: a wind resource study, which provides blueEnergy with an estimate of energy delivery potential; an energy need / market study that helps blueEnergy understand the energy usage patterns and economic potential of prospective project communities; and an environmental impact study.
For more information, or to help support our work, find us on the web at http://www.blueenergygroup.org
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blueEnergy Begins in Bluefields, Nicaraguaby blueEnergyGroup2,138 views
The best feature of this concept is that it will lower or even eliminate the need to attack nearby forests for firewood. This is a wonderful idea and I hope it keeps going strong...Mon ;-)
Plutonwolf 3 years ago
gran trabajo el que hacen en nicaragua!
rizoorlando91 4 years ago