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I'm Scott Tinker and I study energy.
I was in remote Colombia to visit a family living without modern energy of any kind.
This is the farm of an Arhuaco tribal elder.
I'm Scott.
He lives here with his wife...
Their daughters and their husbands, and lots of grandkids.
Hi.
[foreign language] Alright.
Using farming methods passed down over centuries,
the Arhuacos can grow everything they need.
[foreign language]
Beans, bananas...
And coffee. [chuckle] So this feeds everybody.
What is this?
For grinding?
Alright, here we go.
Everything here is produced with manual labor. This press is their only machine.
Put your back in it.
What did we make, sugar cane?
It's good?
[foreign language]
I'll try it.
That's good. I wouldn't drink it every night, but it's pretty good.
Gracias.
[foreign language]
I think he's done this before, look at that.
[foreign language]
Oh wow, that's beautiful.
Eat it?
That's good. That's very good.
This seems like a pretty good life but it's a hard life.
Only half of the Arhuaco children will make it to adulthood.
Inside this hut, it was around 120 degrees and filled with smoke,
from their only energy source, fire.
Very little windows. What is this hanging above the fire?
Banana.
Bananas, smoked bananas.
Mais. Secar mais.
Oh, they dry corn. That makes sense. Muchas gracias. Muchas gracias.
The Arhuacos still get all of their energy from burning wood,
and you might think they're a fairly isolated case.
But in fact, there are one billion people in rural Latin America, Africa, and Asia
who live like the Arhuacos do
with no electricity or modern energy of any kind.
There are another one billion people, most of them urban,
with limited energy that's often unaffordable or dangerous.
Nearly all of these people and a few hundred million more
still burn wood, straw, dung or and other biomass for cooking or heating
and suffer from breathing its smoke.
These two plus billion people worldwide live in what the UN calls energy poverty.
That's nearly a third of the planet without access to safe, affordable, reliable energy.
In our last film, Switch,
we looked at the continuing energy transition in the developed world.
We'll now focus on a more profound transition
for the people moving out of energy poverty
and beginning to receive the many benefits that energy brings.
We'll go to Ethiopia, and Kenya, and Vietnam
to see how large new grid-connected electricity projects
will power mostly urban citizens.
We'll go to Colombia and to Kenya again,
to meet rural people getting their first electricity from off-grid solar solutions.
And we'll go to Nepal to meet people transitioning from burning wood
to healthier modern cooking fuels.
Their stories are a microcosm of what's happening across the developing world,
as people and communities Switch On.
On the other side of the mountain from the Arhuaco farm is the village of Sabana Crespo.
It's a trading center
where families come down from the hills once a week to exchange goods and see friends.
A couple of years ago, this rural community got its first electricity ever.
Because here, the non-profit Solar Electric Light Fund,
or SELF, installed a solar microgrid.
I met their CEO Bob Freling.
Scott Tinker: How did you get involved in this village?
Bob Freling: Well, it all happened when a leader of the Arhuaco people
came to Washington DC and requested our support to come in and bring solar power
to his and several other villages here
in the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern Colombia.
That is a remarkably rapid transformation for indigenous people to make though, right?
BF: It's true. And we're very mindful of the fact that not everybody in the world
wants this. We would never go and impose our solutions
on a community that has not invited us.
For example, they have asked us not to bring power to their homes and we haven't.
ST: So, this array, this micro-grid is powering more of the community center type things?
BF: Correct, this is all for community-based needs.
This system helps power the coffee operations.
It's the only crop they trade with outsiders.
It also powers lights in the community store,
on the streets at night and in the health center.
SELF's engineer, Steve McCarney, showed me a smaller array
that powers a refrigerator and freezer for vaccines.
Steve McCarney: This is a great project that was funded
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
to basically prove that solar ice making could be done and used for immunization
and the actual first solar direct drive battery-free icemakers are right behind us.
Okay, fellas, here is the vaccine room.
And in here is the freezer, these are... The serial number on this is probably 001 or 002.
This is frozen solid, solar energy.
Those are used for outreach.
They pack 'em with these ice packs, take the vaccines out,
walk out sometimes up to three-day trips from here so they can immunize outreach
locations far up in the mountains.
So it does extend beyond the village.
ST: Right.
BF: The catchment area for this village is approximately 17,000 people.
ST: 17,000?
BF: 17,000 people...
ST: So your 12.5-kilowatt micro-array, and some smaller ones around,
is actually servicing a community of 17,000.
BF: You've seen what a little bit of energy can do, right? ST: Yeah.
BF: We think about a few watts or a few thousand watts in the United States, it's nothing, right?
ST: Yeah.
BF: But a few thousand watts of energy make all the difference in the world.
ST: Yeah.
Bob and Steve have spent their careers bringing off-grid electricity
to rural communities like this one.
To understand what it really takes to power the people, I wanted to help them do more of it.
[music]
Halfway around the world there's a different challenge.
Nepal sits between the northern border of India and the Himalayas
and is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Outside of its capital, most people are farmers living a very traditional lifestyle.
[music]
I went there with environmental health scientist, Dr. Amod Pokhrel,
who's been studying their cooking methods.
In the countryside, everything is done by hand or foot.
Along the main road this small furniture factory sells scrap wood.
Sanu Kanchi, a mother of five from a nearby village, is here to buy some.
So why don't they get this wood from the forest?
So the government opens community forest
for people to collect wood only one time a year.
Yeah, because there is a big problem of deforestation.
And then after that, they have to purchase it from the market,
which is expensive like we'll see...
Scott: Yeah, so this is the market.
Amod Pokhrel: Yeah, this is the market.
ST: I'm curious to see how much this weighs.
21.3 kilos, so almost 45, 50 pounds.
How long will that last for cooking?
[foreign language]
AP: She said it goes for two weeks.
ST: About two weeks. So we need 25 of those every year,
and we just spent 200, so 5000.
So that's a lot of money. How much money do you have each year to spend?
What money do you make?
[foreign language]
AP: So she doesn't know the exact...
But according to her she spends a lot of money on purchasing...
ST: Probably maybe half of her income or more. AP: Yeah, half of her income.
ST: Just on fuel. AP: Just on fuel.
ST: For the fire. AP: For the fire, to cook.
ST: That's a tremendous amount.
[music]
Sanu Kanchi is one of the more than two billion people around the world
who still cooks with wood, dung, straw, or other biomass.
[foreign language]
So we got corn, dried corn.
[foreign language]
Over here, mais.
ST: So people have been cooking over wood and solid fuels for many hundreds of years.
AP: Yeah, thousands of years. And it's good because this allowed people to boil water
and give warm food, which is also helpful in terms of health.
But the smoke is the main issue here.
And so you can see there's no vent, ventilation, any window opening for the smoke to go out.
Amod and his team monitor air quality in more than 3000 households in this area.
The outside air pollution levels are about 50 parts per million of particulates.
ST: So two or three times a day we're going to 900.
AP: Yeah, yeah.
ST: 15 to 20 times the standard. Every day.
Well, you can hear the kids, you can hear their lungs, you can hear when they cough.
ST: And you've been cooking in your home all your life, like this?
[foreign language]
AP: Yeah. She has always used biomass stoves, she has not used any other modern fuel...
ST: I mean you can see the smoke, completely darkened rafters and the loft above us.
AP: Yeah.
ST: That's really remarkable with kids and things, the exposure...
AP: Yes.
ST: Through their lives. AP: Yeah, yeah.
Amod and I went to the nearby Siddhi Memorial Hospital
to see how breathing smoke was affecting the local population.
She's beautiful.
[foreign language]
Okay. I'll just explain.
[foreign language]
How many do you see like this every day? Who have the respiratory?
How many little kids?
The electricity is not working.
AP: This is a very common problem in Nepal.
In our study here, which was conducted here in the same hospital,
we also found a very strong association between pneumonia and use of biomass fuel.
Thank you, I hope she gets better.
[foreign language]
Sadly, children die frequently here of pneumonia.
World Health Organization studies show that diseases from indoor smoke inhalation
kill over 3 million people a year globally.
More than AIDS and malaria combined.
Clearly one of the most important challenges facing the world today
is how the one-third of its people who still burn wood can move to something else.
Back in Colombia, we went with SELF to Gunchukwa,
another Arhuaco village that had requested electricity.
But first, we had to go through a cleansing ritual.
[music]
Osiris McCarney, SELF's operation manager, showed us how it's done.
My son Derek helped organized this trip.
We had to bathe in Arhuaco's sacred waters before we could meet the village
and address their spiritual leaders, called Mamos.
Thank you for welcoming us to your village.
And we appreciate very much the nice ceremony that we went through this morning.
It's very meaningful to us and we want to extend our respect back to you.
[foreign language]
We are in a partnership with SELF and Switch.
So our interest is to understand your needs
and if you have a need for electricity
in a way that we could help you, we would like to learn that.
But only to the extent that you want it.
And we would work with you
to bring electricity to your village and work with you to teach you how to maintain.
Now, we had a mission.
The Arhuacos of Gunchukwa asked for lights and fans in their community buildings,
a street light in the square, and a refrigerator for their store.
To power all that, like Sabana Crespo, they would need an off-grid solar system
and we would build it.
[music]
But before we could do that, I was off to Africa to look at on-grid solutions.
This is what you might expect Ethiopia to look like.
But this is where it's headed.
Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, is rapidly modernizing and rapidly growing
and desperately needs more electricity.
To get it, they're building a huge new hydropower project called the GERD,
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
There are challenges to building any dam.
I talked to Rudo Sanyanga from a watchdog group about perhaps the most important.
But a major dam like that produces a tremendous amount of steady electricity.
But you're saying it disproportionally benefits
those who are in cities that can benefit it
compared to those who are displaced.
Interesting.
I met with Dr. Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia's Minister of Water and Electricity,
about how they'll power the city without leaving their rural citizens behind.
Yes. Again, how do you get the electricity
in the country, into the hands of the poor?
There's villages that have nothing, no electricity at all.
Are you building power lines now? Or the big networks being built?
To learn more, I was off to visit the GERD.
ST: It's nice to meet you, what's your name? Lazarus: Nice to meet you, Lazarus.
ST: Lazarus, I'm Scott.
From the air, Addis Ababa looks like any big US city.
In fact, it has a bigger population than all of them except New York.
But this is not unique to Ethiopia.
In countries across Africa, cities are growing.
Across Latin America, and especially across developing Asia, it's happening too.
150 million people moved to cities each year.
Almost half of the people in the developing world already live in urban centers.
By 2050, it will be closer to 70%.
The future of the developing world is urban.
Meeting the huge energy demands of these densely populated
urban centers will be a great challenge
while balancing the needs of rural citizens.
I'd see how they're doing this at Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam.
It sits on the Blue Nile in the desert on the border with Sudan.
I met with the general manager of the entire project, Kifle Horo.
ST: This is called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance... Kifle Horo: Renaissance, yeah.
ST: Why Renaissance? What does that mean?
KH: Ethiopia was great some centuries ago.
That's why we called it "Renaissance," coming back to our greatness.
ST: Okay.
KH: The finance of this project comes from the government of Ethiopia and from the public.
The public has a stake in it, they are buying bond...
ST: They're putting their own money. KH: Money, yes.
KH: Every year, they give one month of their salary
on a bond basis, which will be repaid after five years.
Think about that commitment.
Many Ethiopians are putting one month of salary each year toward bonds for the dam.
KH: The total intended capacity is around 6.3 gigawatts.
ST: Yes. So that's six or seven nuclear reactors?
KH: Exactly. ST: This is big, massive.
KH: From the dam, water comes and the spiral case guides the water into the turbine.
ST: The turbine, that's unbelievable.
KH: So huge. ST: The scale of that.
KH: You can imagine the size.
ST: Wow, the scale of this is just crazy.
It's hard to appreciate the size of this project.
When complete, it will provide electricity for tens of millions of Ethiopians.
ST: What does this dam...
ST: how did that contribute to lifting up the Ethiopia economically?
ST: So you'll be able to provide electricity to citizens of Ethiopia?
ST: Yeah, for all of Africa. KH: Yeah, all of Africa.
It seems the dam is well on the way to achieving its power goals,
but what about the people it has displaced?
In the valley that will be flooded to create the dam's reservoir,
I met with journalist Abraham Fisseha.
We're sitting here on the upstream side of the GERD.
In a few years, we would be under about 140 meters of water.
And there used to be people that lived here in this area, and they're gonna be displaced
as this fills. How did they live?
It was a very primitive way of living.
Sometimes they are dependent on fishing.
But no farm, no other activities.
So now they have given them an opportunity,
even though it's not enough, much better than they used to be.
They have never been to school, they had no access to clean water.
So now with relocating them,
schools are open, clinic is open.
So at least, at the minimum, they have an access.
Are many of these part of your family?
So your life is very different now?
[foreign language]
So, the electricity which will come to this pole,
comes from the new dam.
[foreign language]
Your little boy will be able to go to school now.
So he could eventually... He could learn to write and read.
[foreign language]
Not all rural people in Ethiopia will get power from the dam
or react so positively to it.
But here, as in many developing regions,
big grid electricity projects will drive commerce and power cities
and help expand the grid to power villages.
[music]
For most developing countries, hydropower is one of two choices,
for large grid electricity projects.
I went to Vietnam to look at the other one.
Hang Nguyen, an energy planner,
told me how Vietnam will power its urban centers and growing economy.
ST: There's a lot of construction going on over here, in fact, there's
a big jackhammer down here knocking things down.
So it's been hydro, but it's going toward more coal?
Why is that, why not keep hydro?
So we've built all the dams that could be built for the most part, or at least the big ones.
So you have to have something else that feed that economy.
To power its continued growth,
Vietnam plans to double its entire generation capacity in 10 years.
I went to see if they could do that with coal.
And I'd start by going into a coal mine.
[foreign language]
[train rumble]
Riding this tiny train, deeper and deeper into the earth
is enough to make anyone claustrophobic.
ST: How far do we go?
Andy Nguyen: We will travel around two kilometers.
I was surprised by just how many miners were there,
going into and out of the mine, 24 hours a day, on different shifts.
ST: Wow.
ST: Wow, that's about as good as it gets.
Pliable.
AN: The coal here is high quality.
ST: Yes, it is. AN: It's very hot.
ST: Yes, it is.
ST: There it is.
ST: Alright. It's wet. It's a slurry.
[foreign language]
In Vietnam, working in a coal mine is a steady high-paying job.
How long has this mine been operating?
[foreign language]
ST: Did your father work in this business?
Miner: Yes. ST: Yes, he did.
ST: And you're...
[foreign language]
AN: My father, my grandfather also.
ST: Really?
So he's third generation.
[foreign language]
AN: My grandfather, my father, and now me. ST: Yeah, here you are.
Coal leaves Vietnam's mines on trains and passes through a network of coal towns.
[train horn]
Each town is made up mostly of coal workers,
their families and the businesses that support them.
Most of the coal is headed toward the coast,
where it will eventually be loaded and shipped on barges.
I went there with journalist, Andy Nguyen.
AN: This is a port where the ships come to transport coal.
ST: Right. You can see the coal.
ST: So we are seeing at least 8 or 10 ships right here.
ST: They take it down the coast back to rivers on a train,
and then to coal plants and make electricity.
It appears Vietnam has the mining capacity,
the trained labor force and the transportation system to support their coal growth plans.
And in the next 20 years, Vietnam plans to build 50 new coal plants like this one.
ST: So where are we now?
AN: Master control room, the power plant.
ST: And so these guys, they're basically measuring what? Generators?
AN: Ash.
ST: Oh, it's the ash. He's looking at the ash.
ST: And this guy is doing something different?
Water system.
ST: Oh the water system. AN: Water system. ST: The cooling system.
ST: So everybody has a different job.
ST: Coal has many advantages, but one of the challenges is just the air quality
the particulates in the ash.
So how do we fix that?
AN: So we do, we are using a limestone powder to burn with coal to reduce the emissions.
ST: To get the sulfur.
AN: And the ash, the second challenge is the ash.
AN: This is a conveyor system to transport ash
from the power plant to this area to store the ash.
ST: Is this all ash behind us?
[foreign language]
AN: Around five million cubic meter of ash.
A lot of the ash ends up in this yard,
but a lot still goes out the stack.
I went to talk to some of the people who live just downwind
from the coal plant to see if this is a problem.
ST: Does everybody here, everybody you know have electricity?
Yes, of course. When I was born, I had electricity, my family had electricity.
So you work in a business, the coal business, which is your life
and that business puts pollution. Do you see that as a conflict?
No, she works for a railway company.
But these guys were in coal and the whole community is based on coal
but it makes the environment...
So how do you change that?
[foreign language]
There are some ideas here. What's going on?
Yeah.
It does not come from the coal mine; it comes from the thermal power plant.
From the plant.
Yeah. You see the white dust in the air.
In the US, on the coal plants, we have scrubbers that scrub this out before it goes up.
It makes it more expensive, it makes it more expensive.
[foreign language]
What are some of the other challenges in the community?
So you don't want coal to go away?
Coal powers Vietnam's communities and businesses.
In exchange for these benefits, they seem willing to accept its air pollution.
Vietnam will use coal to build an economy
that's strong enough to eventually afford something else,
like many countries have and many will, across the developing world.
Making the electricity is just half the challenge.
The other is getting it to the people who need it.
Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is another one of Africa's fast-rising cities.
Here, over a million people live in slums
and many are struggling to get safe, reliable electricity.
I went to visit Kibera, the largest slum,
with Kenya Power's Director of Infrastructure, David Mwaniki.
Mafuta taa, makaa. What does this say? Swahili.
ST: So charcoal here, we have kerosene there. David Mwaniki: Yes.
So this is sort of what it was, and still is.
Kind of where it's going some. And that's the future.
That's the future.
ST: So this is a school?
DM: Yeah. It's a nice place to be.
ST: Did you grow up with electricity when you were young? Did you have electricity?
That's perfect.
But that's the opportunity that these kids will have.
That's phenomenal.
There was illegal connections? Yes.
Run by?
Like cartels?
I met with Jaelle Mwalo to find out how Kenya Power
worked with the cartels to install electricity.
ST: So the cartels were here... Jael Mwadiloh: Yeah. ST: And the next step was?
To engage the cartels.
William Opiyo is one of the local leaders
that Kenya Power identified to help install power lines.
ST: We're walking under a brand new power line here.
So Kenya Power put in the poles and brought legal electricity,
and then the cartel said, "No. We'll tap into it with drops."
William Opiyo: Yeah. ST: Illegally.
Can we see one of those here or not? Can you point to the illegal wire?
ST: Can I tell which one it is? WO: Yeah I can see. ST: Which one?
Which one are we looking at?
ST: Right here? WO: Yes. ST: Okay.
ST: And this one? WO: Yes.
Wow. So William, these are homes?
I see four doors on this side, and four down this side.
Hello! I'm Scott.
What's your name?
Dominic. It's nice to meet you.
Thanks for letting us come to your home today and visit.
Dominic: Yeah. My pleasure.
ST: I can see you use a lot of electricity.
What's this? What's this here?
ST: What is it?
ST: Oh, this was Kenya Power's?
ST: And it's empty. WO: Yeah. Yeah.
ST: And this is the illegal? WO: Yeah. The illegal.
ST: Is it better for you for having Kenya Power or this cartel power?
ST: It's safe? Dominic: Yeah.
ST: Have you ever had an electrical accident? Like you've got shocked?
ST: Yes? Dominic: That is, oh yes.
Okay. So it's not very safe?
You are laughing because it's scary?
ST: Oh I see. Yes. That looks pretty scary.
ST: I mean tell me what happens with illegal power like that. What are the concerns?
ST: Live wires? I mean what... I mean that's got to have killed people!
WO: Yeah. Yeah.
ST: Children? WO: Yeah. Yeah.
So when it rains...
Everything is metal.
ST: Boom! WO: Yes. ST: Wow.
So it's a real safety and security issue.
And the reason that's still there? Like, why doesn't somebody go take it down?
Who would do it?
ST: You? WO: Yes.
Around the world, there are about one billion people living in slums,
and there are a grid expansion projects like this in cities across developing Africa,
Asia and Latin America.
All will bring lighting and literacy,
communication and safety, health care and refrigeration,
small business, and industry.
And all will struggle with corruption.
It's perhaps the biggest stumbling block to energy development.
Hydroelectric dams, particularly in African countries
where there are still good resources
will increase in size and in number.
They'll face challenges of financing, environment and displacement of local people.
Coal electricity will grow dramatically in Asian countries.
While it's declined in Europe and North America over the last 40 years,
in Asia, coal use for power generation has increased more than 1000%.
Regional particulate air pollution and C02 emissions have grown along with it.
It's clear that developing countries will continue to grow,
urbanize and need more energy.
Reducing environmental impact and corruption will remain two great challenges.
For the one billion people living off the grid,
they'll need off-grid solutions like the solar system we were building in Colombia.
[foreign language]
Here, people and equipment converge on the tiny village of Pueblo Bayo,
where the pavement ends and the road heads into the jungle.
It had taken a year of work
and a great deal of resources to organize this trip.
Uno. Dos. Tres... Eso!
We asked our friends at REC SOLAR to donate solar panels.
The panels were manufactured in Singapore,
shipped to Los Angeles and trucked to Miami.
Let's back it up a little so I can get my leg out.
[laughter]
The sun doesn't shine at night which is when the Arhuacos need power.
That means a battery which the panels will charge.
The batteries were made in China, shipped to LA,
trucked to Ohio for testing
then joined our panels in Miami for the trip to Barranquilla, Colombia.
From there, they passed through three different trucks
and finally into ours to at last get here.
Most important, we brought a dozen volunteers from the US and Colombia,
smart, able, educated people,
who Steve could teach how to install a solar microgrid.
Well, I guess we got over the first challenge.
There'll be a few more.
[music]
As we drove the last four hours back into the jungle,
I couldn't help but wonder how much transportation fuel was involved
in getting this solar system and all of us who would install it out to Gunchukwa.
[background conversation]
ST: Towards me.
You ready? Watch your step on those stones.
Osi McCarney: Basically the first message is: Welcome, welcome back.
Thank you for coming back. Thank you for bringing this gift.
Steve McCarney: Yes, a trend continued, perfect.
ST: I've been traveling in the last year,
and spoken in probably 10 or 15 countries,
and I always show pictures of Gunchukwa. So Gunchukwa...
OM: Is traveling.
ST: Is going to be known very well. And I hope that's okay.
OM: He says that he feels that they are traveling.
ST: Yes. Yes, you are.
[laughter]
ST: And finally, I will thank our team,
we have volunteers from Colombia, from around the United States,
students, young professionals,
that have all volunteered to come here this week and to meet you
and to work with you and bring our cultures together.
I was struck that it would take a similar global convergence of people and technology
to electrify any of the hundreds of thousands of rural villages around the world like Gunchukwa.
But for now we'd focused just on this one.
[music]
ST: Some places are so rural that there aren't villages.
In the Maasai territories of Kenya, a solar microgrid is too expensive.
Smaller off-grid solutions are required.
Here I met with Isaiah, a member of the Maasai tribe who is also a traveling salesman.
That's perfect, and they get good reception here.
Isaiah, you were raised in this community? Isaiah: Yes.
ST: You went to school here? Isaiah: Yes.
Did you have any electricity in school or home?
So this is really changing lives.
ST: That is fantastic.
Utility companies face so many other challenges in developing countries
that stringing power lines to scattered homes becomes a low priority,
but this makes it an opportunity for businesses selling solar home systems.
Isaiah: This is the TV. ST: The TV.
ST: Then I can see the battery.
Isaiah: Yeah, the battery is over there.
ST: Right.
Okay. Just pull it a little bit this way.
ST: Is that good? Isaiah: Yeah, that one is good.
Isaiah: The TV is so big. The TV comes here.
ST: Ah, the power line. It's very quick. It's very easy.
Hello. Hello.
Hello. So I can activate it now.
Kenya is sometimes called the Silicon Valley of distributed renewable energy solutions.
In Nairobi, I met with Pauline Githugu, M-KOPA's Director of Marketing.
ST: This is big.
Pauline Githugu: Yeah, there's a lot going on here. ST: How many people are in here?
We have about 200 staff who are within the call center. ST: 200?
Yeah. And the basic activity here is to support our customers,
so once they make the decision to buy the product we have to switch it on.
ST: Yeah. PG: Yeah.
ST: Young people. PG: Yes.
A lot of buzz.
Yes, I'd say our average age here is probably 28.
ST: Really? PG: Maybe even younger within the call center.
PG: The payment, this is done by mobile money.
ST: So that comes through a mobile network.
Yes, that comes through a mobile network, so
this device has a SIM card. So it operates like a mobile phone.
ST: So this is it.
If you don't have the ability to use your phone and pay...
You don't do this.
No, you can't do this.
ST: This is the heart of your business. PG: Yeah.
Is this something that Kenya,
M-KOPA and others can share and export to the world as one of the key things?
Absolutely. I think this is something that we've proved can really work,
but it is really predicated on the existence of a good mobile network.
In Kenya and many other countries,
tech startups like this one are allowing rural families to buy their own off-grid electricity
which can help them get something even more important.
On the outskirts of Nairobi, I met with farmer, John Kidenda.
ST: Would all of this grow in natural rainfall or do you have to use more water?
It's January now.
John Kidenda: We're in January.
[laughter]
ST: So you have to irrigate.
I have to irrigate.
How does the water get from your system to the plants?
ST: Two panels. JK: Two panels.
What does a system like this cost?
Okay, so your costs are covered here by what you get every month.
Comfortably. Comfortably. That's fanastic.
That's deep.
ST: Fifty feet! JK: Yeah, fifty feet.
So it's really deep.
So you got a lot of water here.
Wow.
Samir Ibrahim is the Kenyan-born American educated
Silicon Valley-style entrepreneur who started SunCulture that built John's system.
Let's take a look at your pump.
Samir Ibrahim: This is the Rain Maker Two.
And this plugs right into here.
It's the strongest energy management system for off-grid customers in Africa.
Really? Yeah.
So there's a SIM card in there?
There's a SIM card in there, WiFi, Bluetooth.
You can talk to things in the field, so we are actually building,
We've built an Internet of Things platform to bring
precision agriculture services to farmers for the first time here.
Right.
In Africa, we have 60% of the world's unused farmable land.
Okay. Of the world's unused farmable land?
Of the world's unused farmable land.
We're the only continent when we talk about water scarcity,
It's not a physical water scarcity, it's an economic water scarcity
So people just can't afford to just pull the water up.
My dream is to prove this out in a way where we get dozens of companies doing this.
Yeah.
With hundreds of thousands, if not millions of acres under irrigation
with modular energy management systems so that people can plug in other appliances
and that people have the choice of what they do.
I mean we are very fortunate. We can choose what we do.
When we use power, when we take a shower, when we watch TV.
Right.
We wanna give people that choice. We wanna give people that freedom.
Can you imagine what affordable access to water would do
to change the entire continent of Africa?
JK: Are you ready? ST: I'm ready. Let's sprinkle.
JK: There.
JK: Wow. ST: Whoa!
There you have it.
ST: That's spraying.
Now you're thinking big.
Yes.
In this and many developing regions,
small electricity businesses driven by local entrepreneurs
are using new tech to solve old problems.
In many cases, they have the potential to scale faster
and reach rural customers faster than power lines.
[music]
Back in Gunchukwa, our team of volunteers has started the week-long process
of building the solar microgrid.
ST: First panel.
SM: Alright.
It's ready for us?
It's pretty close. That good?
I think that's it. Perfect sun.
SM: Mmm, yeah. ST: No trees, pretty clearing.
As long as we don't get the goats doing the tango on these things.
ST: First panel.
ST: It is good.
SM: You just get them in spots. This one looks like it's gonna need to be loosened.
We've almost got our first sub-array.
Sterling Richard: We got a 35.5.
Doug Ratcliff: Okay, now I'm gonna just pull it all through. Alright?
ST: Alright.
SM: Alright. We got three kilowatts.
ST: Congratulations.
[laughter]
ST: It's awesome.
The Arhuacos wanted to help.
They're farmers and were able to knock out the trenches for the conduits in a matter of hours.
ST: I think when we left a year and a month ago, we all had that moral conflict within us.
The conflict of, "Will this improve this community or not?"
The challenge, I believe, that they're wise enough to know about and face
is here in the beautiful Sierra Nevada, places like this are becoming encroached upon.
And I think they know that they have to be part of that.
And my hope is through all of you and those that we reach,
we can communicate what they bring and share
so that this busy, crazy world that we come from
can become more like this one.
And if we can be one small voice in how to find that balance,
then I think we will have made a little bit of a difference.
SM: We're moving into another phase on this work,
we've got it as we say in the trades, we're out of the ground now.
So now we're gonna set up the electrical system,
and so I wanted to just have a brief talk.
Essentially, what we're doing is we're protecting the wiring from kids, animals,
and that's why you see a light switch this high.
That's so kids don't run in here when everybody else is busy with something else
and turn everything on, they can't reach that so well.
ST: If we could put a little glue on there and then...[click]
Paula: More? More? Yes.
ST: Yes Eric, yes Paula.
DT: It just pops on actually. Sarah Jane Todd: Oh.
SM: So, every room's going to have a light.
DT: Ta-da. Everyone: Yay.
SM: We spoke a lot about sustainability,
and the Achilles heel to all of these mini-grid systems is the battery.
So the more times the light gets used,
the more time that ceiling fans are running,
the bigger the battery has to be.
To wire the battery, we called in the professionals from Bogota.
Every battery in every off-grid village
is technologically complex and dangerous,
if not handled correctly.
It may be the Achilles heel of the mini-grid,
but it's also what makes it possible.
SM: Good work, fellas.
As a battery, that's as pretty as they get.
Alright.
SM: It's in place. [laughing]
In 10 years' time, the battery will need to be replaced.
The Arhuacos wanted this refrigerator,
so they could sell cold drinks and popsicles
to raise $10,000 to $15,000 to buy a new battery when the time comes.
SM: A lot of electricity is about bringing the power to the load,
which is the lights,
and then switches are what interrupt that power.
If you make a bad connection, it's just like a switch.
It just breaks that continuity and then nothing happens,
and then you don't know, is it that connection?
Is it that connection?
Is it in the light, is it in the electronics that feed the light?
Did somebody do something wrong back there?
So one error here means checking sometimes five or six places,
which really sets the whole group back,
especially if it's Friday night and the goat's cooking, and you're trying to figure out why
your circuit isn't lighting and everyone else is.
We'd need everyone's help for the last step of the install.
The Arhuacos had turned a tree into this light post,
and the tropical hardwood was nearly as heavy as steel.
DT: I always wanted to be a brace.
Solar micro-grids like this one
and solar home systems may not have the power of a coal plant or a dam
to run cities and businesses.
But they'll bring electricity to millions of off-grid citizens,
allowing their first steps into the modern world.
All that was left here was for the panels to charge the battery,
so we could switch on the lights for the first time ever in Gunchukwa.
Perhaps the biggest energy challenge in the developing world,
affecting both urban and rural citizens
is how to move from wood and other biomass to fuels that produce less smoke.
In Nepal, I was ready to see how they're making this transition.
I'd start in a suburb of the capital city, Kathmandu,
where this plant bottles Liquefied Petroleum Gas, or LPG,
the same fuel used in gas barbecue grills.
ST: We are surrounded by canisters.
So this operation is really growing then.
ST: How many homes are on LPG now, do you think? Just rough percentage?
Amod Pokhrel: In Kathmandu Valley, 94%.
Oh, it's that high?
Yeah, 94% of the homes have LPG. And 6% of households still use biomass.
ST: That's not much, though. AP: Yeah, yeah.
ST: We talked about, it's a better fuel. What are some of the challenges?
AP: There are many challenges. For example, 100% comes from India.
Nepal is dependent on India and there have been some hiccups,
like there was a blockade in 2015, immediately after the earthquake
and the supply was cut for about five-six months.
Because Nepal has a different and a very difficult geography.
Then, prices increasing also, that's another challenge.
Because it depends on international market price also.
So, there are many challenges also associated with this.
ST: Nothing's perfect. AP: Nothing's perfect.
ST: Ready to take us?
ST: So it's interesting where all the different people live, the things.
These look like pretty modern buildings over here.
Here's the facility.
In lieu of pipelines, this is Nepal's LPG distribution network.
Gas comes from refineries in India,
on ever smaller modes of transportation,
to reach the people who use it.
AP: We'll put this cylinder on a bicycle.
ST: On a bicycle? AP: On a bicycle, yeah.
ST: Oh good.
AP: Yeah, so one bike can carry two canisters.
ST: Okay, the roads look pretty good for biking. How about I try it?
AP: Sure, yeah. ST: Can I bike? AP: Yeah, sure.
AP: We'll help you put on the canister. ST: Let's take them to a family.
AP: Just go straight. ST: Okay.
AP: And then turn left and I'll see you there.
ST: This might not go very straight, but we're gonna give it a good run.
Wow, where did my heels go? Alright, we're out of here.
ST: This is the house? AP: Yeah, this is the house.
ST: This is the house?
AP: Yeah, everybody needs energy.
[foreign language]
AP: There's a blue flame.
ST: And no emissions, no smoke, no...
AP: No smoke. ST: Very clean. AP: Yes, very clean.
ST: Ask her if she enjoys cooking with it.
[foreign language]
AP: Yeah, it's easy. ST: It's easy.
In urban Nepal, most households have chosen this easier, cleaner fuel,
which is available, because there's a system to transport it.
But in rural Nepal, where the roads are few and often unpaved,
LPG canisters are harder to come by.
Here, families need another alternative to wood.
AP: The mountains. ST: Yeah, that's beautiful. And the valley.
ST: A bunch of dried corn on the roof.
So, your kitchen.
And you're cooking, you're boiling something here, I can see.
[foreign language]
ST: Making tea. AP: Tea.
What are you cooking with?
[foreign language]
S: Gas ST: Gas?
Gobar gas.
So, Gobar gas is a dung-based gas, like biogas.
Animal dung-based biogas.
AP: It's cow dung. ST: Cow dung. Okay.
And you like it?
[foreign language]
AP: Yes, you don't have to buy cylinder, it's free. ST: Right.
AP: So you have one cow.
They can drink milk and then use dung.
ST: So they drink the milk, and they use the dung and you cook again.
It's a perfect circle.
ST: So we're going to get biomass and look at biogas?
AP: So we'll use dung.
ST: We'll use dung? AP: This is cow dung.
ST: What's she gonna do?
AP: She'll put this dung in the bucket.
ST: She will? AP: Yeah.
ST: I guess I probably ought to help, huh? AP: Yeah.
ST: Oh, nice. That's nice.
ST: Biogas. AP: Biogas.
ST: That's just a fresh one. AP: Yes.
[laughing]
AP: So she'll put water. Do you wanna wash your hands?
ST: Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll wash my hands, sure.
AP: It'll serve two purposes.
ST: There you go. Efficiency.
AP: Efficiency, yeah. ST: In every step.
ST: There you go.
[foreign language]
ST: Oh she's got to mix it first.
AP: Yeah, mix it. It has to be thoroughly mixed.
ST: Oh, I'm glad I already washed my hands.
AP: It has to be thoroughly mixed and then stir it.
ST: Now I take this here?
ST: Now I pour it?
ST: Alright. Oh, yeah, that's nice. That's not very deep.
AP: So the toilet is also connected.
ST: This is the... AP: Human waste also goes there.
ST: Nobody's there, luckily. I just opened the door.
So Amod, here we got a concrete canister and a bunch of stuff in it.
And then there's gas up in the kitchen.
What's the process?
AP: So this is an inlet, you put mix of dung and then water, you stir it,
And then methane is in the bacteria that works on the manure.
And then it generates biogas.
And then people get biogas through that pipe. That yellow pipe you'll see.
And then it goes to that house. So this is a 6 cubic meter biogas system.
But, people are building like 20 cubic meter.
ST: Well, let's go see one of the bigger ones. AP: Yeah, let's go.
ST: So, where do you put in the dung and the water?
AP: So it will be there. ST: Oh, wow.
AP: So it will be there. ST: That's a big room there. AP: It's a big room, yeah.
ST: There's a concrete dome over the big chamber. AP: Yeah.
And how much biogas will this make?
[foreign language]
So it provides you with gas enough for eight hours to cook food for six family members.
Wow.
ST: So, wonderful system. Where can it be put around the world?
It can go a lot of places. For example, if it works in Nepal.
There's lots of opportunity to upscale this in South Asia and Africa.
ST: South America? AP: South America. ST: Sure. That's good.
AP: If it's possible in Nepal, then it's possible everywhere.
ST: Right, right.
Both these gas solutions: LPG and Biogas,
produce a tiny fraction of the particulates of burning wood.
And everywhere that particulate pollution has declined,
respiratory disease has plummeted along with it.
LPG use is growing rapidly, especially in urban areas across Asia and Africa,
where there are refineries to produce the gas and road systems to transport it.
There are half a million biogas systems in Nepal alone.
These could be well suited to rural areas around the world,
wherever there's livestock to make the manure that fuels them,
and temperate climates to keep them from freezing or drying out.
These modern cooking fuels,
combined with access to affordable on-grid and off-grid electricity,
will help literally billions of people live better, healthier lives.
For my last stop in Nepal, Amod wanted to show me the newest alternative to wood.
As grid electricity from hydropower becomes more available and reliable,
a market for electric cook-tops is springing up.
AP: So Scott, this is the store that I was referring to,
and one of the entrepreneurs
that is selling induction stoves.
ST: It's beautiful.
[foreign language]
AP: So if you want to cook rice. ST: Right.
AP: Then you press this rice button. ST: Yeah.
AP: So, if you want to boil water, then you press water button.
[foreign language]
Yeah, if you wanna fry, then you can press this. So she's saying that it's easy.
How many of these have you sold in your store?
[foreign language]
Overall 60 induction stoves have been sold. But she has sold 10.
ST: 10 from here? AP: 10 from here. ST: And how much time did that take?
Within one month.
Wow, that's amazing.
Are you seeing that bigger trend in the Valley as well?
Yes, yes, so other people are buying it.
From other markets also or other stores also.
How much would this cost?
[foreign language]
5500 Nepali rupees.
5500 rupees. So that's about $55. That's a lot.
AP: Yeah. ST: But you're selling still that many.
You know what? Sold. I'll take it, I'll take it today.
That's beautiful.
ST: Thank you so much. Store Owner: Thank you.
[foreign language]
I found your son out there.
We have something to give you.
Electric cooking.
Have you seen that before?
ST: No. Should we open it?
It's for your pot to sit.
Now, we plug it in to electricity,
which Amod will help you get to your house
and it costs less money than wood.
Very good. And there will be no smoke.
[foreign language]
She's asking if we'd like to have tea.
Absolutely.
[laughing]
Let's have tea.
In Gunchukwa, it's Friday night,
and the goat is cooking,
and there was just one thing left to do.
We gathered everyone in the village square to turn the lights on together.
It's a very exciting time.
[foreign language]
A year ago we came as strangers to Gunchukwa.
Today, we are here as friends.
And now we're going to count backwards from five.
We will say, "Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Light," together.
We will do it very loudly. Are you ready?
ST: In Espanol and English.
OM: Yes. Okay. ST: Ready.
Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Light.
ST: On the count of three, a big duni.
Everyone: One, Two, Three...
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