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Sustainable Hydropower Franchises in Rural Honduras

Engineers seeking to bring electricity to rural areas in Honduras through community-owned hydropower franchises for social, economic, and environmental benefits. Research focuses on technical practices and business models. Energy has monetary power to generate income, environmental power to reduce fossil fuel use, and social power to improve education and health. Utilizing hydropower due to its abundance and cultural acceptance. Design tasks involve civil works, grid deployment, and business refinement for cost-effective, scalable systems.

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Sustainable Hydropower Franchises in Rural Honduras

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  1. Pico Hydropower Franchises, A Test bed in Rural Honduras Elizabeth Lemus Mentor: Brian Thomas

  2. Background • Engineers with a Mission • BU Student organization formed in 2004 • Several projects in Kenya, Honduras, Armenia • Many people respond to poverty with charitable (or socialized) solutions • “Community owned” means “no one owned” • Switched to for-profit to harness power of capitalism • Q: Capitalism? Profit? Isn’t that ungodly? How does this match Baylor’s Mission? • A: The Christian mandate is to serve the poor may be best accomplished using business!

  3. Research Goal • Goal • Determine best technical practices and corresponding optimal business models for bringing electricity to rural communities of developing countries

  4. Question: Why Energy? • Energy has the ability to help people in many ways: • Monetarily • Environmentally • Socially

  5. Energy, specifically electricity, has MONETARY “power” • Generate income for villagers who • own electricity franchise • start other micro businesses using electricity • Such as corn grinding, • ice making, • laundromats? • Attract outside investors who can help us scale up to hundreds of systems

  6. Energy, specifically electricity, has ENVIRONMENTAL “power” • Eliminate kerosene-burning lanterns • Expensive because inefficient user of energy • Poor quality of light • Reduce greenhouse gases and price volatility associated with fossil fuels • Eliminate improper flashlight battery disposal

  7. Energy, specifically electricity, has SOCIAL “power” • Improve education by enabling children to do homework • Improving health by reducing fumes and empowering health clinics • Give people hope!

  8. Hydropower • Abundant in rainy, mountainous, Honduras • Some cultural acceptance of hydro power already • national grid has several multi-megawatt facilities • Renewable • Less expensive than solar or diesel in long term ($/W)

  9. Research and Design Tasks • Design “Civil Works” • Design distribution grid • Test circuit breakers • GPS receiver • Google Earth • Transmission line analysis • Business and legal requirements

  10. “Civil Works”Water Directing Structure

  11. Civil Works Constructed Concrete footings anchored in boulders

  12. Energy Flow 770 Watts output power Hydrogenerator efficiency 42% 63 liters/second 10 ft vertical drop

  13. The Powerhouse

  14. Grid Design

  15. Grid Deployment

  16. Circuit Breaker Testing

  17. Danta Uno After Before

  18. Future goals • Replace meters with electronic circuit breakers • Franchise Development • Cost reduction technologies • Business practices refinement • Work with other organizations • Inter American Development Bank • AHPPER (Honduran small renewable energy association) • AIDG (Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, Guatemala, MIT)

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