Lessons from Our Travels
John Boland & Chris Bryant, August 2004
Coming back to Adelaide after months of travelling, observing and learning, we want to share our experiences with our friends. Travel can be an edifying and at times humbling experience. We will tell you about some of our experiences.
To begin with there were two Solar Energy Conferences, held in totally opposite environments.
In April, we went to the Cuban Solar Energy Conference, held in the city of Guantanamo, in the southern, dry area of Cuba. This was the most unusual and in many ways the best conference we have ever attended. Instead of sitting in lecture halls listening to what has been or should be done to aid in the sustainability of society, we travelled each day in buses to where there are real projects.
In Cuba, there is a great need for solar electrification, water provision, and sustainable agriculture for the communities in remote areas. When we reached a community, we would have presentations using audio-visual equipment set up in community halls. Then we would learn first hand about the provision of solar power for schools or the organic banana plantation etc. After finding out how the communities are providing, with the help of NGOs, for their needs, we would then be treated to lunch catered by the community.
This would be totally organic local food since the whole of Cuba has embraced organic agriculture. In about 1990, some Australian permaculturists spent some time in Cuba working with people setting up permaculture systems. It was then adopted as a model for the country.
Often the lunch would be followed by music and other entertainment by community members - often by children with extraordinary talent. We were struck by the enthusiasm for the sustainable model and humbled when we thought of the depth of knowledge compared with the general lack of it in Australian society.
Some of the projects we visited included:
- Organic banana plantation with 8 varieties, microjet irrigation, great mulching techniques, biological control of pests.
- Guaso mini-hydro plant (1.8 MW peak) still with original turbines set up in 1917.
- Revegetation of a coastal plain, including a cottage built in traditional lightweight design for coping with the heat.
- Organic sugar cane plantation, with production of ethanol (and Rum).
- Town based pig farm with anaerobic digester, produc- ing gas for cooking etc.
We also attended the European Solar Energy Conference in Freiburg, Germany. This is a very rich and beautiful part of Germany. There we heard about how a rich country, like ours, can actively get involved in moving towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
If you walk in the countryside as we did, the large barns that house the livestock in the winter often have 3-4 kW of photovoltaic cells on them. One might wonder why so much. Well, a question one of us (John) asked at the conference threw light on the problem.
A town official was describing the PV power plant they had erected on an old waste dump. This is a substantial plant, and so John asked if they participated in the spot market for electricity. The person answered that they had a set contract in which they could sell solar generated electricity for FOUR times what one has to pay to buy it. WHY??? Because Germany has signed the Kyoto agreement, and so it is worth it to the country to subsidise those generators who can provide clean energy. So the PV cells on the barns are an investment for the farmers, just as much as their dairy cows.
2007.2.8