IDEAS Energy Contest: Designing turbines for slow moving rivers to benefit remote communities
- Aims
- To produce electricity from slow moving rivers which will benefit people in rural areas.
- Region
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Status
- Planning
- Summary
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The project will use Garman river turbines and adapt these to the slow moving waters of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers to provide power to isolated communities.
This project is one of the award-winning projects of the 2009 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest for improving energy efficiency and expanding access to renewable energy. The project is jointly sponsored by GTZ and GVEP International.
- Full Description
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The turbines will use the flow of the rivers to generate power rather than the fall of water such as with waterfalls and dams and will be adapted to the contest of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. The project aims to assist 120 villagers in three different remote locations in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador who will be able to use the power generated to charge batteries
This will introduce a new means of generating electricity other than solar or diesel generators which are currently the only options. This project has wide possibilities for replication in isolated areas. It is estimated that a million rural people could use this technology in the Orinoco and Amazon regions of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador and the Colombian coast. Most are very poor indigenous populations.
Winner: APROTEC a Colombian company which specialises in the development of projects which use renewable energy and other appropriate technologies. They are committed to the efficient use of energy and natural resources, social development and respect for the environment.
