Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

While La Gonave doesn't have any power plants, the discussion of many is how to provide an island of over 100,000 people with adequate power.  Some suggest renewable energy, others say build fossil fuel plants. Renewable energy seems like a good choice due to the fuel source being free or virtually free.  Things like wind and solar rely on what La Gonave has plenty of.  Biofuel and Biomass plants will allow for plants that are grown to supply the power.  The big problem with renewable energy is that they don't harness all of the energy they product.  So in other words, solar and wind tend to not supply the full net of power.  You also face problems with mother nature.  The wind may not be at constant speed needed to make wind power viable.  There could be days or weeks where extreme cloud cover affects the effectiveness of solar.  While there are benefits of free or near free fuel, renewable energy isn't always dependable.  They, at t...

When looking over ideas to Gonave's future, and using natural energy (wind and solar) to power the island, there are other things that Gonave can do in the distant future.  I wrote last year about creating a power company called Gonave Power and Lights.  GPL could adopt some of the same things many American cities have done to conserve power.  Gonave stands at an advantage because it is just now beginning its journey into power consumption. If future development comes to fruition, then many homes will start using power and water unlike ever before on the island.  The extreme expense will limit the amount of infrastructure that can initially be developed.  Looking at Hurko Co. development ideas, one city block would be developed at a time, with each block packing in a couple of hundred people.  Not only does it shave off expensive infrastructure, but it makes ecological sense.  With the development, no large road networks need to be completed, the co...

There is no question that wind would be a good way to power Gonave.  I have wrote a few different blogs that talked about wind farms on land and in the sea.  Given Gonave's location and the strong winds that blow across the island, wind turbines are a no brainer. The wind turbines produces different amounts of power, but according to Hurko Co, a company that is proposing to build a Focus City on Gonave, the ones that could be developed would be 2 MW of power each.  The would look similar to the photo above (courtesy of earthtechling.com).  This photo was sent to be Hurko Co as a model for what they expect for Gonave.  They would build a road (most likely gravel) to connect different communities, and along the way build these large turbines. Potential grant money from the United States could be used to build these turbines over a stretch of 1 to 2 miles.  The power created would be enough to start small scale manufacturing, and even powering homes on ...

Last year I wrote about ways to power the island, and some of it focused on Coal, Solar, or Wind power plants.  All of these types of plants have their advantages, and disadvantages, which I went over briefly. What is a simple and cheaper way?  Diesel Powered Generators.  Many third world nations use these systems as their only source of power, Nigeria comes to mind.  Using these systems work well when money and time are a major problem.  These plants run on diesel or gas, and can be expandable.  I am posting three videos about such systems.  I think this is something that Gonave and maybe even Haiti should consider to solve power issues.  This is a 13.2 MW power plant in Saudi Arabia that uses 4 engines. This is an animation of how a plant can be customized for the environment, and how the system can be expanded over time.  It talks about the type of engines possible. The last video is also an animation from a dif...