The Sun Lights Up the Night in Haiti

[bananas]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51484

The Sun Lights Up the Night in Haiti
By Peter Costantini*

ENERSA workers making photovoltaic cells / Credit:Courtesy of Richard J. Komp
ENERSA workers making photovoltaic cells

Credit:Courtesy of Richard J. Komp

PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 18, 2010 (Tierramérica) - There are shortages of lots of things in Haiti: clean water, arable land, trees, living-wage jobs, housing, schools, fuel, reliable sources of electricity and Internet access. But one thing Haiti has in abundance is sunny days.

<snip>

And no doubt this idea has occurred to many people. But it took Jean Ronel Noël and Alex Georges to turn the obvious into reality. Starting six years ago, after graduating in engineering and business administration, respectively, from Canadian universities, Noël and Georges put their heads together to find ways to bring jobs to Haiti.

<snip>

In addition to the benefits of clean energy, the two Haitian entrepreneurs hoped to employ and transfer skills to young people in a country where the jobless rate is estimated at 70 to 80 percent, and where, for those lucky enough to have a job, the minimum wage was raised last year from 1.75 to 5.50 dollars per day.

They were also doing their part to reverse the brain drain that has long plagued their country. "We don't just make solar equipment here," Noël told Tierramérica. "We make citizens. People have to feel they have a future in Haiti."

<snip>

To date, ENERSA has installed more than 500 solar streetlamps, which run about 1,400 dollars each, in 60 towns. But their long-term target is 35,000 streetlamps in 500 municipalities.

<snip>

"People formed their own refugee camps around those streetlights before the outside aid groups ever showed up," Richard J. Komp of the U.S.-based Skyheat Associates, told Tierramérica. Komp is a global expert in solar energy who mentored Noël and Georges.

<snip>

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.) (END)

[kristopher]

1. K&R but it is still at zero. Sad it is that nuclear fans are afraid of solar lights fo Haiti...

[BeFree]

2. well

We just need a nuke plant in Haiti. Shouldn't take more than 3 years, and then run lines all over and meters (or would it be to cheap to meter?) and poles and electricians and security and built to withstand earthquakes.....

Yep, the nukers outta get right on it. Give 'em something better to do than the stupid unreccing.

[Nihil]

3. I've K&R'd it too ... there are very few "all or nothing" people here ...

... with two or three obvious exceptions of course ...

Anyway, this particular "nuclear fan" is very much pro-solar
for this type of thing (as can be seen by my past posts).

Try a slightly narrower brush next time?
:shrug:

[bananas]

4. And yet it's still at 0 net recs

There's really no good reason for that.

[Nihil]

5. As I said in a different thread ...

> I suspect that there are a number of quiet disrupters who happily
> unrec anything that might be important or that can be used as a
> wedge inside the E/E community ...

Most of the time, the blame for an unrec on an anti-nuclear post
will be automatically assigned to "those pro-nukes" in the same way
that the blame for an unrec on a pro-nuclear post will be automatically
assigned to "those anti-nukes".

Recent behaviour on what I'd call "middle ground" threads has made me
wonder about that.

I have unrec'd some posts in E/E in the past but I've almost always posted
my reasons why. I think I'll just stick to recs or nothing from now on.
:shrug: