Nicaragua develops renewable energy project to produce

In the province of Madriz, Nicaragua, the former scene of civil war between the Sandinistas and the contras in the '80s, a group of women farmers has replaced wood and fossil fuels with kitchens that work with solar panels, energy clean and renewable.
In Nicaragua, which is abundant sunshine. With this detail, for eleven years, the American engineer Susan Kinne, with the support of the Nicaraguan State University, drove in the mountainous province of Madriz, a former stage of the civil war of the 80s, a project aimed at reintegration into the working life of farmers crippled by landmines.
The project, designed by Susan Kinne and Programme of Alternative Sources of Energy's National Engineering University (PFAE / UNI), was that some victims of the accidental explosion of numerous mines in this region during the war, working in promotion, production and research of solar energy as alternative energy source to fossil fuels.
The idea was to train mine victims in the production and installation of photovoltaic panels, while giving them a job for these people, spreading the use of sustainable sources of alternative and clean energy in rural communities without access to electricity , told EFE reports Nimia-Lopez, manager of the cooperative "Solar Totogalpa Women."
In the tropical Nicaragua, a country of 5.8 million inhabitants, the sun, and abundant resource, and has become an alternative energy in rural communities, where it is estimated that more than half a million people lack access to electricity, according to official figures.

Nicaragua solar energy project

Rural women in the community of Sabana Grande, Totogalpa, welcomed this project as his own, although it was initially aimed at the maimed by mines, after realizing that in addition to power generation, solar rays can be used for cooking.
A group of them formed in 2003, the cooperative "Solar Totogalpa Women," which brings together 19 women and one man, in order to produce and disseminate the use of kitchens and panels that use solar energy, which is clean and sustainable Instead of wood, which helps large-scale employment to the destruction of forests, and that generated by petroleum products, of which so much depends Nicaragua.
"A housewives (of Totogalpa) we like solar cookers, as it saves fuel, time to cook, no dust and smokeless," said Nimia Lopez, in his case also uses a solar oven, manufactured by the cooperative with its limited means and to some extent by hand.
"The process is cleaner: we do not burn, and preserves the nutrients and vitamins," added the peasant, who emphasizes that the use of solar energy for cooking instead of using firewood, also contribute to prevent deforestation to preserve the environment and do not generate greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The benefits of the sun

In populations also mired in poverty, in which the hoard scarce economic resources to cover basic needs, this system also saves.
Yelba Maria Lopez, another Nicaraguan peasant cuisine that uses a powered by a solar panel, told EFE-intended reports before about five dollars a month to buy firewood for cooking. But today, thanks to solar cooking in her house, located at the foot of a mountain, not the expense.
Although it does have electrical service, has also reduced by up to 85 percent of the electricity bill by using solar panel says. Yelba, mother of two children, says that was the kitchen and the solar panel in exchange for working at the Solar Center, the headquarters of the cooperative, where women make with your hands all these devices that run on renewable energy.
The administrator of the Cooperative states that "Women Solar Totogalpa" not only aims to achieve economic self-sufficiency, but also work for the sustainable development of the community, "to create jobs with dignity that promote renewable energy and protect the environment."

Solar Unrestaurante

Soon, members of the community of Totogalpa have plans to build a restaurant, a hotel, a small school and a kindergarten. The restaurant will provide meals made with solar energy, will be sponsored by the United Nations Programme for Development (UNDP) and the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos), the Netherlands.
"The idea is to show that we can use other alternative energies to not depend on conventional and thermal energy," says Lopez Nimia also Production Coordinator Solar Center.
By contributing to sustainable development, rural women's cooperative that has earned numerous local and international awards, including the Seed Award.