IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 76

residual biomass were not enough to
make significant energy use. Finally, we
considered the use of solar energy ac cording to our measurements and community approval.

Sizing the Solar Energy System

FIGURE 3. Working meeting with the community.

and to improve welfare in the community, offering
energy for school, food preservation, and improved
communication possibilities. For example, the community has better conditions for study, preservation,
and marketing of fish and water. They also have
increased community services provided by the school,
such as nighttime community meetings. The pending
implementation of a production process associated
with the refrigeration chain has created new knowledge for the community, targeted for management,
operation, and maintenance of the new solar generation system. Complementing this basic knowledge of
management and marketing of chilled or frozen products, a cooperative has been created with community
leaders who took control over the operation, maintenance, and administration of the new production process. The educational level of the population is low;
therefore the proposed solution has required a special
technology transfer program for the operation and
maintenance of associated equipment.

Characterization of the Available Energy
Sources in the Area of the Project
According to Mining and Energy Planning Unit (UPME),
solar, wind, biomass maps, and data collected from
other sources such as the International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA), and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the availability of
wind at this project site is not favorable. The river flow
is good, but it does not have major heights to think in a
water plant because the topography is flat enough and
this region does not have the altitude change necessary
to augment the water flow rate to generate power. So
these two sources were disregarded. The quantities of

Given the wealth of energy resources in the
region and the needs raised by the community, a solar solution at two community locations was proposed. The first system was
installed at the school, and the second at a
refrigeration center (a newly built space).
The solar system located in the school has
a capacity of 1.5 kW covering the electricity
needs of 7 classrooms, and provided services for connecting audiovisual equipment, computers, communications, LED
lighting, and more. The second system is
composed of six DC refrigerators of 160
liter capacity each. This new space was built not only to
accommodate the refrigerators, but also to provide
space for the administrative management of the solar
generation system. The solar system located at the
school has AC and DC power, and the refrigeration center is exclusively in DC power. Complementary to the
project, solar lamps were delivered individually to housing. The solar lamps have peak power capacity of 3 W.
These lamps offer the community the ability to continue
some work at home, and to charge small devices such
as cell phones and radios, and to illuminate some areas
of living space. The installed solar systems have a
sealed battery, maintenance-free LED bulbs, refrigerators in DC, 52 solar lamps, lightning protection system,
and grounding.

Energy Cooperative Model
The installed refrigeration system has allowed the community to generate business ideas to market the products they grow. They can store fish and other foods that
require refrigeration, and cool and freeze water and
other drinks. At the start of the operation of the refrigeration center, the people agreed to charge a flat fee per
kilogram of stored food. The food marketing model has
enabled the collection of over $330 U.S. monthly.
Whereas the solar power system does not require corrective maintenance for a period of 5 years, all collected
resources are directed to increasing system generation
capacity and saving a monthly base amount to repair or
replace parts of the generation equipment.
The cooling system is owned by the community, and
has a functioning committee that reports daily on the
income and novelties that may have occurred. This committee corresponds to the Energy Cooperative, which

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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DECEMBER 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017