QLA on Solar

Can we learn from the barefoot people of Tilonia ?

While we are making available our alcohol and associated culture to our indigenous people, maybe we should be taking a lead from the barefoot people of the world regarding our water and power supplies.

Most of us have roof tops and the ability to put in a water tank. Is it possible that, if we had a water tank in our homes, it would put a huge dent in our city water shortage problem? Note the Rainwater Harvesting Association of Tigray which is now a registered body in Ethiopia and was officially inaugurated on 19 June. Barefoot solar and water engineers in nine countries are constructing rooftop rainwater harvesting systems after 6 months of training at the Barefoot College. The College has trained over 340 men and women from 16 states in India and nine other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to become barefoot solar engineers.

And solar power?

Perhaps we can learn much from the barefoot approach in Ethiopia:

Follow the journey of 60 semi-literate middle-aged women doing six months training at the Barefoot College of Tilonia, Rajasthan (India) - training to becoming solar engineers and electrify 50 rural communities in Afghanistan, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Mali, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. Now, nearly 11,000 solar household systems and over 5,000 solar lanterns provide clean energy and light to more than 125,000 people. Yes, solar panels on the roof of native huts providing power for lights and even computers. Each of these communities now enjoys light instead of darkness every night. Solar panels produce electricity for most homes in Tilonia besides feeding Barefoot College facilities including 20 computers and a telephone exchange.

This year, many more women and men are being trained by the Barefoot College to become Barefoot Solar Engineers. Besides tackling solar electricity and drinking water, the Barefoot College addresses the problems of health and sanitation, girl education, rural unemployment, income generation and social awareness and conservation of ecological systems. For further information visit www.barefootcollege.org.

About 1.1 billion people world wide have inadequate water supplies. Barefoot College advocates paying attention to centuries-old traditions of collecting rainwater to meet this shortage.

Energy from the sun and water from the rain are both free so here there is no big money political lobby in support as there is with mining and oil interests. We need to ask "are we allowing ourselves to be talked out of using these resources by people who say they will never be an adequate replacement - when in fact the answer is that we need them not as a replacement but just as a means of reducing our need for oil and coal".

Enquiring in our solar industry, one finds there are new technologies on the fringe which could be helped by Government money to push them into reality; which could double and re-double the effectiveness of solar power. So, when is our Government going to put some real money in the right place to enable us to take advantage of' this freely-given everlasting power which does not threaten our civilisation? Apart from money for research, our Federal Government could immediately allow additional rebates over and above their present cap. When they last increased the rebate from $4,000 to $8,000 there was a great surge in the solar industry. Removing the cap would compensate those who put in larger solar systems.

Are we so superior that we can't see this clear Barefoot message for us?

So, what's your view? Send me a note via my blog - see link, top right.

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