In the Atacama desert – a place of spectacular, rugged beauty and harsh extremes in climate – lies the small village of Ollagüe where till recently the power went off at 2pm every day. Now, as this film shows, the indigenous Quechua community there has its own hybrid plant, delivering clean energy 24 hours a day.
The film powerfully illustrates how community microgrids that draw power from renewables can support the electrification of isolated areas around the world. Ollagüe gets its electricity from solar cells (200kw) and a wind turbine (30kw), integrated with an advanced Sodium Nickel Chloride battery, able to store and release 520 kWh of green energy, supplying 50 to 100 families with the energy they need.
The term “micro-grid” simply refers to highly local production and distribution of power, which frees users from depending on a big national grid. That microgrid could cover a single house, factory or village. A common analogy is that micro-grids are like growing your own food: you don’t have to buy in food from outside, you are less vulnerable to sudden hikes in prices, and, even if retailers can’t supply you with food, you can rely on your own stocks. Substitute the word “food” for “energy” and the advantages of such grids to remote and poorer communities are obvious.
Of course the technology used in micro-grids around the world will vary depending on local climate and conditions. For instance, the Ollagüe hybrid plant uses vertical blades and molten salt batteries suited to the harsh, high-altitude conditions. Also, using photovoltaic cells as the main generation system limits the need for specialist maintenance.
But the Ollagüe project also illustrates how getting micro grids right in remote places is as much about involving and bringing education to communities as it is about technology. As the film shows, basic maintenance and monitoring of the solar panels is now done by locals. And local women have even been funded to go to India to train in solar technology.
A key theme of the film is how Ollagüe’s people are fiercely proud of their Quechua heritage and determined to sustain it. Reliable power will be vital to helping schools as they teach young people about their heritage, language and history, as well as helping to develop the local economy, including tourism.
As Krasna Pereira, community co-ordinator at Enel Green Power, which installed the hybrid plant, says: “I believe that Ollagüe will change from a totally indigenous community to a community that will mix indigenous roots with technology – and that is truly marvellous.”
Content on this page is paid for and produced to a brief agreed with Enel, sponsor of the energy access hub at the Guardian Global Development Professionals Network.
