Report #1  Thursday, January 25, 2007

This is the first report from Brad and Susannah.  They are visiting India to investigate the possibilities of installing solar power on a college and starting a solar training institute with the Rotary clubs from India and Federal Way, Washington.  We arrived in India on Jan 18^th, 2007 and will return on February 19^th.

(Note:   I will be using btburk@yahoo.com while on this trip, so please switch from the harbornet address for our communications for the time being.  Thanks)

 
Dear Energy Enthusiast,

             These reports are intended for those folks interested in renewable energy issues that face our world.  So far our time here has been more of a cultural experience than a renewable energy experience.  Susannah posts blogs that are more personal and cultural in nature at wwwbradandsus.blogspot.com if you want to check that out.

I was surprised in the capital city of Dehli by the lack of exhaust fumes put out by all the busses and taxis.  We had been used to big black plumes of dirty smoke pouring from the tailpipes of buses in Central America.  Here the government has mandated that all public transport in the capital run on compressed natural gas.   So Delhi’s 13 million inhabitants has less smog than the Puget Sound does on some days. I could spend hours describing the mayhem of traffic and the seeming insanity of getting from one part of the city to another has the feel of going down a fast whitewater river in a raft or kayak.  (Some of you can relate to that)

            Yesterday we met with the regional distributor of the largest photovoltaic panel manufacturer in India, Tata BP Solar India Limited.  They have a vertically integrated operation where they manufacture panels, export them around the world and then have a series of local dealers that sell directly to consumers here in India.  They also sell solar water heating systems.  Prices are very similar to the prices we pay for solar products in the U.S. 

            They furnish large systems to banks for uninterrupted power of their computer systems, to government projects, and offer home systems consisting of one 80 watt, 12-volt panel, a 10 amp charge controller, a 12 volt 110 amp-hour battery, and either two or four 12-volt dc compact fluorescents for about U.S.$600.00 retail.  (For an idea of wages: We spoke with a teacher with 20 years experience and she was earning US$ 280.00 per month.  Her daughter had an electronics engineering degree and a job with a trade association who was earning $400.00 per month.  Both are considered good jobs typical of the Indian middle class.)

            We met with Mr Monoj, the local dealer for Tata BP.  His company is named Sun Power Solutions.  (I will send pictures when we have a better internet connection) We met with him to make sure he could supply us with solar products and price quotes for our school project.  He assured us that they could supply all our needs.  His warehouse stocks over 200 pv panels.  He said business was great and showed us a picture of the head of the state’s renewable energy office cutting the ribbon at his store’s inauguration..    He had two grunfos pumps sitting in the office capable of pumping 40,000 liters/day that were about to be delivered to a farm along with sixteen 75 watt panels to provide them with power.

            It is surprising to me how little solar water heating we have seen here.   Most of the homes have a large plastic water tank on the roof that acts as their storage tank, but no one seems to have hooked them up to the sun.  They have 5 peak hours of sun per day (similar to Colorado, we in the Puget Sound have about 3.5) so they could do a lot.  But as I gaze out our hotel room window across all the flat rooftops I do not see a single solar hot water heater.

            I will sign off here.  Later we will report on other meetings and next week we will actually get to the school in the small village of Rath in the state of Uttar Pradesh to see what their needs are.

            Please e-mail with any comments and questions as these are always helpful.

Brad Burkhartzmeyer

btburk@yahoo.com

P.S. We’ve been here a week and are just now getting accustomed to the ways of India.  The food has been fantastic, and at times extremely spicy hot.   My bald head sweats and water runs down my cheeks.  This is great entertainment for everyone.

            Our (no luggage was loaded on the plane at all, so not just ours, but everyone’s) luggage did not make it onto the plane in Amsterdam so the first several days we “traveled light” with only the clothes we had and what ever we had in our carry on bag.  The confusing bureaucratic process (legalized mayhem) of getting our luggage challenged our cross cultural patience. 

            About every two or three hours as we pass thru the day we look at each other and say, “We’re not in Kansas anymore!”

             We've seen some amazing architecture and statuary.

This is the second report from Brad and Susannah who are visiting India to investigate the possibilities of installing solar power on a college and starting a solar training institute with the Rotary clubs from India and Federal Way, Washington. We arrived in India on Jan 18th, 2007 and will return on February 19th.

Dear Energy Enthusiast,

We are currently in the city of Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh. The state is south west of the Indian capitol of Delhi. Uttar Pradesh is the most densly populated state in India, home to 80 million people. India’s total population is slightly more than 1 billion people. (The population of the U.S. is about 1/3 the size at 300 million).

   We are being hosted here in Lucknow by Jayant Kumar and his family. Jayant’s brother, Rajiv, is a Northwest Solar Group member who lives in Lakewood outside of Tacoma and practices Law in Federal Way. Jayant and his family have had us to dinner a couple of times and arranged a driver to choufer us to tourist sites, restaurants, and to meet with solar businesses in the city.

   Yesterday we met with Sanjay Tiwari, owner of a solar electric and hot water business called Anushka & Associates. See their website at www.sunwize.co.in (This is not the same SunWise company we have in the U.S.) He offered to accompany us to the village of Rath to help us to assess the solar needs at the college at which we hope to install a solar power system.

   His biggest selling product is a small home lighting system that includes a ten watt solar panel, a 7 amp hour battery, charge controller and three LED light fixture that draw a total of 3 watts. This kit sells for about US$200.00. We had him turn off all of the lights in his shop and turn on just these three LED lights. It put out enough light for a room about 15 feet by 15 feet. Enough so you could study or cook by.

    O.K. that’s the boring solar report. I just have to say this place just blows us away. We wander around dazed and confused half of the time. The thing that baffles us the most is the way people shake their heads sideways when they are saying "yes." It looks to us as if they are emphatically saying NO, but then the word "yes" comes out of their mouth. My brain can’t wrap itself around this fast enough so I repeat the question and get the sideways headshake again and the word yes. After two or three times of this, Susannah and I confer and decide that the guy really is saying yes and we all understand each other.

   The food has been a delight. Seldom does food show up on your plate as a separate entity -- like we would have a piece of chicken, a blop of mash potatoes, and a few green beans on our plate at home. Here food shows up in little bowls of vegetable mixtures that you spoon onto your plate then mix and match them together with some form of bread and dip them into the three or four chutneys (little bowls of condiments with spicey flavors of mint, coconut, tomato, etc) before popping it into your mouth. So far we have used silverware at all our meals, but it is no problem to eat some of your food with your hands.  A typical meal costs about $2.00.  I must admit that many times I do not know what we are eating other than is is a vegetable dish with spices.  Eating vegetarian is great here, so filling and tasty.

   Sometimes I have a hard time understanding the English spoken here. The following is an actual conversation conducted entirely in English between Brad and a waiter. We have been laughing about this for days.

Waiter: Is this your first time in India?

Brad: No, no thank you. We don’t want to have desert.

Waiter: O.K. sir. (followed by the famous head bobble)

Waiter leaves, Sus: You realize he just asked you if it was your first time in India?

A typical meal would include a dahls (lentil soup), some type of masalas(spicey mixed vegetable dish), and dosa (thin lentil flour bread, almost like a tortilla, but thinner) or nan (warm flat bread)

Please e-mail with any comments and questions as these are always helpful.

Brad Burkhartzmeyer

Use btburk@yahoo.com ,the harbornet e-mail account is hard to access from here.

Report #3  1-Feb-2007

This is the third report from Brad and Susannah who are visiting India to investigate the possibilities of installing solar power on a college and starting a solar training institute with the Rotary clubs from India and Federal Way, Washington.  We arrived in India on Jan 18^th, 2007 and will return on February 19^th            

Dear Energy Enthusiast,

This is the fourth report from Brad and Susannah who are visiting India to investigate the possibilities of installing solar power on a college and starting a solar training institute with the Rotary clubs from India and Federal Way Washington.  We arrived in India on Jan 18th, 2007 and will return on February 19th

Dear Energy Enthusiast,

Tea Time in India      

Organic India Ltd. is a local company purchasing organically grown crops to make tea and herbal supplements.  They process and package the plants in a highly controlled, sanitary environment, then export them around the world under the brand name Tulsi Tea. We met the director of their processing plant Dr BK Singh, an agronomist, for a tour of the facility in Lucknow.  Only after sanitizing our hands, replacing our shoes with special plastic slippers and donning sterile white jackets, hats, and face masks could we enter the processing plant. 

Barrels of bulk ginger, tulsi (basil), and chicory filled shelves inside.  They dry, grind, mix and weigh the herbal supplements before inserting them into glucose based capsules (no gel caps as these contain animal gelatin). They blister pack the capsules for shipment in boxes under the trade name of Organic India.  After drying, the tea is packaged into sterile tea bags, boxed in colorful green boxes, and shrink-wrapped for export under the trade name of Tulsi Tea.  Look for them at health food stores.

Of course we were served Tulsi tea in delicate, fancy porcelain cups along with butter biscuits (crackers).  The flavor came across as a mixture of mint and basil, very refreshing and delicious.

            Dr. Singh asked if we could assess the home lighting needs of the farmers in a couple of villages and report back to him our finding. Perhaps we can help provide lighting with solar energy.  They are interested in helping the farmers improve their lives.  We agreed to do this on our way to Rath.

Farmers from Bhaisain village

We bumped along the dirt road, way off the beaten path on our way to a village called Bhaisain.  I gazed out the jeep’s window at a row of concrete power poles leading to a mud a brick village off in the distance.  Just poles, no wires.

            In the shade of a tall tree rising out of the dust sit 20 farmers on a white tarp. All wear light colored dhotes with warn, but clean, button down shirts.  Their hands as weathered and calloused as the earth around us.  As we step from our vehicle the entire group of men rises, with palms pressed together they greet us with the traditional “Namaste”.  They bustle to present plastic chairs for us to sit upon, but we join them on the tarp, sitting cross-legged in a circle for an honest talk.

            These farmers grow organic herbs and plants for tea which they sell to Organic India.  They also grow wheat, garbanzo beans, lentils, and corn for their own consumption. We attempted to asses their energy needs and uses and found the following:

1.      Each family spends 200 Rs ($4.25) monthly for kerosene for lamps.

2.      Most cooking is done with wood (now scarce from over harvesting) or with dried cow dung mixed with straw. (see photo)

3.      Eight families in the village have solar systems. Purchased eight years ago for 4200 Rs ($90.00) after a 50% subsidy from NEDA (gov’t RE agency, see previous report).  The subsidies are no longer available. Systems included: a 30 watt panel, charge controller, and a 12-volt battery.  Lites, fans, etc extra.

4.      The group thought about 50 to 80 families would want and could afford a 5000Rs systems for their homes.  Their faces dropped noticeably when we said the least expensive system we had seen in Lucknow was 8,500 Rs.

5.      No electricity gets to the village.

The conversation livened up when I asked about the power poles with no wires on them.   “The poles have been there for three years.  The government started to put wires up, but later came and took them away.  Now the gov’t is building hospital here.”

            We walked along the dusty road in the 85 degree heat (they were wearing scarves, saying it was winter now –“we can only grow cool weather crops at this time.”) past mounds of drying dung cakes  to view a home solar system (see photo).  The home was made of brick mortared with mud and covered with a soft yellow colored plaster.  Basic rooms with a bed and chair surround a courtyard.  Cooking is be done in a separate area in back.  The concrete floors are swept bare – not a spec of dust or drop of dirt anywhere.

            We found a 37 watt, 12-volt Indian-made PV panel mounted on a 2” steel pipe.  It faced south at 25 degrees to horizontal. (We are at N 25 latitude).  Cable snaked over the top of the wall terminated in a charge control mounted to a metal box.  Inside the box was a 12-volt tubular battery. (the lead plates inside the battery are shape into tubes to allow for more surface area and deeper cycling of the battery.)

            The man of the home said “only one at time,” meaning only the lights, or the 12-volt black and white TV., or the two small d.c. table fans, or the dc powered swamp cooler could be operated at any one time.  Nothing was currently connected to the battery.  When I asked which electrical devices were most important to them immediately all who were present said, “The fans!” Lights next, then TV. and swamp cooler last.

            As the goodbye “Namaste’s” begin one man in the back shouts out, “Irrigation!”  Every head in the group begins nodding and saying “irrigation, yes, yes.”  Diesel costs too much. We rent a diesel pump to bring water up to our fields since it hasn’t rained for 15 months …diesel is very expensive.  We need to irrigate every 15 days.

            Isn’t that the way it works – often as you are leaving the most pressing issues surface.  In the next report I will speak to the needs of irrigation based on a visit to the village of Dadri.

For our more personal and cultural experience you can go to the posts Susannah has made at www.bradandsus.blogspot.com

Please send any questions and comments.  I have enjoyed your insights. Use btburk@yahoo.com (it is easier to access than the harbornet e-mail address)

Have Sun,

Brad Burkhartzmeyer on assignment in India

Report #5  12-Feb-2007

This is the fifth report from Brad and Susannah who are visiting India to investigate the possibilities of installing solar power on a college and starting a solar training institute with the Rotary clubs from India and Federal Way, Washington.  We arrived in India on Jan 18th, 2007 and will return on February 19th.

Dear Energy Enthusiast,

The Cost of Water

“What is that god-awful clanging and banging noise?” I shouted, but no one could hear to answer.  We walked toward the sound and the black billows of smoke rising from the earth. I peered through the foul cloud into the depths of the well, but could not even see the outline of the diesel engine strapped 60 feet down inside the well.  Water poured out of a 2 1/2” plastic pipe flooding the dry earth where chicory had been planted.  We asked them to turn off the engine so we could talk about irrigation. A minute after the engine stopped we could make out the figure of a man pulling himself hand over hand out of the well on a rope.  It is his job to climb into the well and start the diesel motor and make sure it keeps going.  His face and hands looked like he had just finished an eight hour shift in a West Virginia coal mine. 

After two hours rambling across the fertile planes of the Ganges River system, passing dry irrigation channel after dry irrigation channel we arrived in the Indian village of Dadri outside the town of Rath in the state of Uttar Pradesh in north central India.  Thirty five farmers are seated on the concrete floor awaiting the arrival of the “foreigners.”  We are giving a raised bench covered with white linen to sit upon and a table is placed in front of us because they think we may be writing things down on paper.

Dr. Nagaich, retired agricultural virologist and Dr BK Singh, an agronomist for Organic India Ltd, have come to introduce us to the farmers here and serve as translators and consultants on our quest to assess the energy needs of this village.

After introductions and welcome speeches we plunge right into the issue of irrigation and water for the crops.  I learned at the last village that irrigation is the biggest energy concern for the farmers of this region.  Home lighting is not a priority here.  

“We rent a diesel motor to pump water from our wells. We run the motor for five or six hours to flood an acre of our land. And we have to do this three or four times during the dry growing season, and last year we had no rains during the monsoons so we had to irrigate then as well.”  Diesel costs 35 Rs/liter and they use ten liters for and acre and irrigate four times in the season ……so they spend 2000Rs/acre ($44.50) for diesel and engine rental and can sell the crop for about 3500 Rs/acre($77.80).  So 54% of the potential income is spent on direct energy inputs.  This does not account for seeds, fertilizer, labor, and transport.  Most of these farmers said they will not break even this year.  No wonder they don’t really see the need to discuss solar home lighting systems.

Can solar power solve this problem in a better way?  If we take all the funds spent on energy inputs by this villages’ 300 families they would have about 600,000 Rs per year ($13,300.00)

We know solar has pollution and green house gases, but can it be cost effective and fit into the irrigation methods in place here.  The style of irrigation used is to flood the fields with water -- I was told nearly 300,000 liters are poured onto an acre of land in a single day using the diesel pump.  The soil is porous so they saturate the soil to prevent it from soaking in too fast that by the time it reaches the other end of the field all of the water has seeped back into the earth.  The excess water works it way back to the water table, so it’s not that they use it all up in one fell swoop on the surface, just that it provides a saturated surface for the water to travel to the entire field. (Let me tell you that is good to travel with two PhD’s who’ve worked many years in the agro field)  Can a solar powered pump deliver this amount of water in a day and still be within the cost constraints of the farmers? 

The issue:  Solar can pump water in the quantities needed, but the size of the pump and the amount of solar panels may be cost prohibitive.  We will investigate the costs.  It has been proven all over the world that solar electricity directly powering a pump (no batteries or inverters) is a cost effective irrigation solution for a slow steady flow of water.  Will the farmers have to completely change their methodology of irrigating, adopting a drip type system or install elaborate piping systems to use solar? 

Perhaps bio-diesel is the answer.  They grow sugar cane on some of the farms here.  Maybe the can grow their own fuel.  I am not an expert on this.  Does anyone know how much cane you need to produce a liter or gallon of bio-diesel?

Farm Fresh Sugar Cane Juice – My Taste Buds Sang for Joy! 

The well was adjacent to where sugar cane was being harvested.  The cane workers harvest the cane and pass it through a diesel powered press, and then boil the juice down until it is thick.  Then they press it into a mold about the size of half a basketball.  It becomes a rich brown colored cake of raw brown sugar.  This they give to the owner of the land for him to sell.  The cane workers get to keep the top leaves of the cane for their own use as cattle fodder.  This barter system has been in place for generations and seems to work quite well.  Nothing goes to waste. 

We were greeted as visiting dignitaries.  They demonstrated the whole process for us.  First powering up the dirty, old diesel motor with a long belt attached to turn the cane press, they shoved the can in and a light syrupy liquid poured forth.  They added a little tomato juice and cilantro, poured it into a tin cup and offered it to us.  I was dubious of the whole thing and asked for just a small portion.  But when my taste buds sang for joy at the first contact, I asked for more.  They kept pouring more.  I probably drank a whole liter.  It was field fresh, sweet, tangy and wholesome.  What a delight. 

For our more personal and cultural experience you can go to the posts Susannah has made at www.bradandsus.blogspot.com

Please send any questions and comments.  I have enjoyed your insights. Use btburk@yahoo.com (it is easier to access than the harbornet e-mail address)

Have Sun,

Brad Burkhartzmeyer on assignment in India