Increasing access to energy services in rural areas - REEEP ...

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SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REGULATION AND POLICYMAKING TRAINING MANUAL page 10.78 EnterpriseWorks Worldwide (EWW) collaborated with two private sector partners, Rural Energy and Environment Systems (REES, Ghana) and Scoraig Wind Electric (UK), to develop a local supply chain for locally manufactured wind turbines. This involved training a group of technicians, manufacturing a number of turbines, setting demonstration sites, and launching an information campaign on the project. To start the project, EWW brought in a consultant from Scoraig Wind Electric in July 2004 to train a group of 17 Ghanaian craftsman and technicians from four separate business enterprises in the manufacture of 500-watt wind turbines. After manufacturing one demonstration unit, which was erected on the premises of the Industrial Research Institute of CSIR in Accra, ten other turbines were mounted in eight demonstration sites located in off-grid communities along the coast. It was intended that, after a six-month assessment period, the user would be offered the unit for sale either as a direct purchase or through a credit scheme arranged by the African Rural Energy Enterprise Development (AREED) initiative. In addition, once the concept was shown to be viable, EnterpriseWorks intended to seek funding for a large-scale expansion of the project by marketing the wind turbines, training more manufacturers, and providing business advice and credit to customers and manufacturers. The initial target market for the wind turbines is large agricultural companies. The project implementers hope to stimulate the creation of a new industry and create more job opportunities. 2.2. Aim The aim of the wind energy project is to provide electricity for off-grid rural areas in Ghana, thereby improving the inhabitants quality of life and providing a means of livelihood, and to develop local capacity in the fabrication of small wind turbines. 2.3. Financial support The World Bank funded the Wind Energy Project. EnterpriseWorks Worldwide won funding of US$ 179,000 from the World Bank Development Marketplace Place Competition of 2003. Technical support also came from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
MODULE 10: INCREASING ACCESS TO ENERGY SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS page 10.79 2.4. Status of the project According to the Completion Report submitted to the World Bank in July 2005, the implementers consider the project as 50-69 per cent successful. 2 3 Five of the turbines were locally manufactured, and were installed with locally manufactured inverters and charger/controllers, while the batteries were imported. The local turbines are rated 500Wp. In order to provide a basis for comparison, five (5) 1000Wp imported wind turbines were also installed. In all, ten systems were installed at eight locations along the coast. Only three out of the five locally manufactured turbines worked satisfactorily and were operational by the end of the first year of the project. It was found that electronic components in the inverter or charger/controller were damaged by power surges during windstorms. Also, some of the systems were not properly sized, leading to overloading and rapid discharge of the batteries. At four locations the battery bank was doubled to meet the energy demand. Maintenance costs for the units are also high, and the high cost of transporting technicians to the remote sites to service the units has led to three of the units being dismantled and returned to stores. These are now being offered for sale. To reduce cost, angle iron was used to build the frames instead of galvanized steel, and this has led to some corrosion. Corrosion has also been noticed in some of the other metal parts. 2.5. Benefits The wind turbines were installed at a school, a drinking spot, a battery-charging centre and a church. Apart from using the electricity generated for running these places, the power is also used for domestic purposes such as lighting and the operation of electrical appliances such as TVs and radios. Since the school is better lit at night, security has improved. Electricity is now available for TV and radio sets for information dissemination. The battery charging centres provide employment as well as spreading the benefit of wind power, because when charged, the batteries are used to provide electric power for TV sets and radios in other homes. Prior to the establishment of 2 ”Winds of Change”, www.worldbank.org 3 DM 2003 Project Completion Report [July/15/2005] www.developmentmarketplace.org
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