Monday – July 2nd, 2012

Weather today… ☀☁

http://www.weatherreports.com/Madagascar/Nosy_Be

Project activities!!

-Working ad the new building for the Agricultural Project.

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Yesterday happened…

-Yesterday we had the annual meeting of the Economy and Development Commission. The EDC is delegated to control and analyze the develop projects proposed by Stefano Project. 

Social activities…

-Tsisy, we just rest…

WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PROVIDE ELECTRICITY to The Village at very low costs and the social and emotional impact of this realization is huge and continues to be so.

Children have much more time to do homework, mothers to be better Moms and the men can prolong the time dedicated to craft activities and social relations.

It's hard to talk about development without giving due importance to the factor "energy". The primary sources of energy used here are coal, wood and oil. We have chosen hydropower.

All this has been made possible thanks to an almost fortuitous encounter with Claude-Alain Nissile, a Swiss engineer who along with some of his friends created the Association ADEVE and a customized project for our energy needs.

One of the members of this association is Sergio, a smelter in Switzerland famous for having created the bell of the Olympic Games in Athens. With him we have built the mechanical parts of the bronze turbine "Pelton" which along with the electrical components form a machine which can be easily reproduced in Madagascar by local artisans.

This is an important aspect, that these micro-turbines be easily reproduced in Madagascar which would allow for the exploitation of river water, which is so readily available in this country, and thus giving several villages the possibility of producing electricity cheaply for themselves.

In our village the water reaches the turbine forced through 600 metres of pipe starting from the catchment area and then passes into the basin set in a circle and after a steep descent, arrives with its load of kinetic energy to drive the turbine.

The result is that all homes have access to electricity, the streets are lit, the cinema can show films and the children can recharge their electronic learning devices.

• 2000 - Electricity becomes available in Antintorona. To provide energy to the school, a solar panel system is installed.
• 2006 - Construction of the pipeline. To allow the installation of the hydroelectric turbine we first had to prepare the ground on which to run the conduit for the forced water.
• 2007 - Installation of hydroelectric turbines. The turbine uses the water of the river which is channelled through a penstock down from 600mt.
• 2008 - Installation of an electrical network. The energy produced from the hydroelectric turbine is continuously distributed throughout the village.
• 2010 - The Cinema. With the simple use of an old projector and the unused cloth from a sail , a cinema has been set up in the Atelier of Mechanics and movies come to life for everyone in the village.