SOLAR TODAY - July/August 2010

new energy | for and about students and emerging solar professionals

Student Team Studies Galapagos Renewables Plan Text and photo by OSEA NElSON

The Galapagos Islands, on the equator 600 miles (975 km) west of Ecuador, feed electricity to their population of 27,000 mainly with diesel generators. In 2001, the tanker Jessica ran aground off San Cristobal Island, dumping 240,000 gallons of fuel into the delicate ecosystem. Since then, the government has been under pressure from conservation groups around the world to end the diesel era, and a plan was formed to eliminate fossil fuel power by 2015. The United Nations Development Program helped build a large wind farm, and there’s now a growing network of distributed photovoltaic (PV) arrays. The community hopes to switch over to biodiesel for fill-in power.

In December, I joined Nick Wolfe, a student in the Global Energy Management program (GEM) at the University of Colorado in Denver, to analyze the progress of the fossil fuel-free energy program. The team was a collaborative effort among GEM, Boulder-based Astralux Solar and the volunteer organization Galapagos ICE (Immerse, Connect, Evolve).

At the Charles Darwin Foundation Research Station, scientists from around
the world study the islands’ unique
endemic wildlife in their undisturbed
environment. The station also helps
implement improvement programs for
the local community. In 2006, the Japa-
nese government donated an off-grid
PV array providing power throughout
the laboratories and offices. Rosalyn
Cameron, the station’s outreach direc-
tor, explained some of the problems in
developing large-scale solar projects
on the islands: As in the United States,
official planning tends to be very short-
term, so incentive programs often fall
short, with consequences for financing.

Nick Wolfe and Kerrie littlejohn, students at the University of Colorado’s Global Energy Management Program, teach a class on renewable energy at a Galapagos elementary school.