Green Energy News | February 21, 1999

February 21, 1999 – Vol.3 No.47

ENERGIES... week of February 21, 1999

POWER WHERE THERE IS NONE. If energy is the backbone of the industrialized world, then distributed power generation - power produced where it is needed - can be used to create opportunities and a better standard of living in undeveloped areas.

Less than 2% of Nepal’s rural population has access to electricity, and centralized power distribution is not expected to reach many areas of the mountainous country for the next 30 years. The Solar Sisters program operated by the Himalayan Light Foundation, based in Kathmandu, would like to bring the power of solar energy to villagers, particularly women, in a much shorter period of time.

Along with bringing a small amount of electricity into homes and community buildings, the program aims to increase the income of residents by using solar energy to operate lights and small equipment and appliances - the beginnings of cottage industry. Lights after dark, too, will allow for adult education in the evenings as well as study at home.

The Solar Sisters program has created two levels of contribution for those who would like be involved: donors who help fund the small and reasonably priced 36 watt solar systems, and volunteer participants who both subsidize the systems and help install them. Installation is of course on site and this means a trip to Nepal. To make travel easy, the program for volunteers includes food, lodging, tour and travel within Nepal as well as training for hands-on installation of the systems. Interpreters, technicians and porters are provided.

REAL SOLAR ENERGY. Fusion energy, the power of the sun, harnessed on earth would provide a virtually inexhaustible energy source and not contribute to pollution or global warming. Additionally, fusion does not involve materials or by-products suitable for weapons, nor can a meltdown reaction take place as with nuclear fission. Fusion in the sun involves the combining of hydrogen gases to create helium.

Experimental operations have begun with the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). Scientists there have produced “first plasma,” the beginning stages of a new fusion energy research device.

The leading method of producing fusion energy utilizes magnetic fields to confine the hot plasma while it steadily produces energy. The plasma that NSTX produces will be shaped like a sphere with a hole through the center (or a bloated doughnut.) This spherical torus should be able to contain a higher plasma pressure for a given magnetic field. In the long run the experiment could lead to inexpensive fusion energy. Visit the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at http://www.pppl.gov/ .