Solar panels don’t have any moving parts and can be discretely mounted on rooftops where they can barely be seen.  Because of this, when a solar panel isn’t working, nobody except the end-users can tell.  Small-scale hydro turbines are placed in rivers and aren’t generally visible, so again, when they aren’t working, nobody but the end-users can tell. 

Wind turbines, however, need to be installed in exposed sites like hilltops and water-front areas where wind can flow unobstructed and even be enhanced by the terrain.  Wind turbines are therefore necessarily highly visible.  In essence, they are billboards that advertise their performance to all those around.  When they are working, they enhance the positive image of renewable energy but when they aren’t they incite all critics within sight to clamor that renewable energy doesn’t work.  With wind power, it’s not just the end-users that know whether the system is working – everyone in the community knows.  Wind turbines can either self-promote or ruin your reputation in a hurry.

Some people love the sight of wind turbines, some hate it.  Studies have shown that people’s opinions are heavily influenced by the perceived utility of the turbines.  In other words, when the turbines are spinning and people are made to understand that their motion is lighting up the lights in their house, they find them aesthetically pleasing.  When the turbines aren’t spinning and it’s clear that no benefit is being delivered, people tend to see them as eyesores and nuisances.  Community perception is a powerful force and can make or break development projects, both in the developed and developing worlds.

In California in the 1980’s, some companies installed motors to spin their wind turbines like a fan when there was no wind in order to increase their perceived utility.  While this was over the top as well as a bit dishonest, it clearly shows that they understood the strong relationship between perceived utility and community acceptance.

When wind turbines aren’t spinning, it’s generally for one of two reasons: either there isn’t enough wind or there’s a technical problem.  Beyond choosing a good installation site, we can’t control the first predicament so we have a vested interest in focusing a lot of our attention on the robustness of the wind turbines to avoid the second predicament.  Our reputation depends on it.

Lâl Marandin, blueEnergy Co-founder and Associate Director at the time, arrived in Bluefields Nicaragua to lead the charge with a couple thousand dollars we had raised from close family and friends.  We had no shop, no house, no office, no tools, and no partnerships.  Lâl and I had made an exploratory trip in the summer of 2003 so we had an idea of what to expect, but the challenges in front of us were enormous to put it mildly.

Energy systems are hardware systems made out of steel, copper, and wood, and building them takes a workforce, facilities and equipment.  It’s the opposite of the software startup, which does take talent, but can often be pulled off with a couple programmers, their computers, a living-room office and an ample supply of pizza.  There’s no way around the capital requirements of hardware projects and the relatively complicated organizational structure that is needed to make it work, even for a modest-sized project like blueEnergy.  Needless to say, hardware projects like this generally aren’t taken on by small budget organizations, and certainly not of the nonprofit variety.

In order to survive in the early stages and leverage the limited resources we had, we formed a strategic partnership with the Bluefields campus of the National Technical Institute (IPCC-INATEC).  This partnership provided us a modest facility, access to heavy tools, transportation services and the support of local technicians.  From there, Lâl and blueEnergy’s third Co-founder Guillaume Craig, focused on building relationships with beneficiary communities and other key stakeholders and improving blueEnergy’s physical facilities and human capacity, while I focused on building the administrative and fundraising components of blueEnergy. 

Since 2004, blueEnergy has built and installed 8 energy systems, which some have commented seems like few.  The reasons for this low number are: 1) to date most efforts have gone into developing our models and our capacities to deliver sustainable energy services in a very challenging environment and 2) blueEnergy has operated in a state of extreme resource scarcity since its inception.  2007 saw blueEnergy take great strides and attract attention for its accomplishments in difficult circumstances and I am confident that 2008 will see an end to the resource scarcity.  From there we will be able to get our models and operational capacities to a level where our publicly-visible results fall in line with our vision.

 A lot of what we do at blueEnergy is manage expectations.  We identified this early on as a big risk to our organization.  People are desperate for energy and once they see you have something that works, people come out of the woodwork and mistakenly think you're going to light up their community like New York, and for free.  Since the beginning we took great care to explain to the potential beneficiary communities on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua that our solution is an incremental step towards the larger development picture and requires a high level of beneficiary involvement.  Our solution can provide modest amounts of electricity, but electricity that has an extremely high marginal value because it's the first.  Going from zero lights in your home to one light is a huge improvement.  Going from 10 lights to 11 lights is a much smaller marginal improvement.  Our systems can't power every major appliance people can think of, at least not now, and that's been hard for people to understand at times.

Since our CNN exposure, the demands for our help coming from around the world have increased dramatically.  Here's a look at who visited our website from Dec 6 2007 to Jan 4 2008.  Over 11,500 people and from all over the world:

These website visits generate a tremendous number of comments and questions.  The vast majority follow a similar theme, of the type: "I am a [citizenship] national living in [country]. Have you ever thought about bringing your project to [country]? Here we have no light and contaminated water and your work would be very helpful. What can I do to bring your project here?"

Some examples:

"i live here in the philippines i would a solar power for the home. some thing small just to run some fans and light but the thing is i dont have lot of money becuase am on a small pension i was wondering if you can help in someway thanks and god bless"

"I M A MECHANICAL ENGINEER TEACHING IN A TECHNICAL COLLEGE, IN FAISALABAD PAKISTAN.PAKISTAN IS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY, THERE IS MUCH CRISIS OF ENERGY , SO I REQUEST TO START UR PROJECT HERE, I WILL FEEL HONOR TO BE UR VOLEUTEER. I ALWAYS SEARCHING SUSTAINABLE ENERGY RESOURCES. SO PLEASE HELP POOR PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN . THANKS A LOT"

"My Country is Liberia, West Africa. Liberia has just ended 14 years of civil war two years ago. All infursture was distroyed during the war. No electricity for the rural villages and towns. Can blueEnergy assist with project to provide electricity to some selected schools, for adult education at night and medical clinics for preserving needed drugs and vaccines? What are the requirements we need? Matthias Craig, story on CNN, he is a hero. "

"Dear Sir/madam, I am currently the director of a local NGO called 'Computers For Schools Sierra Leone". We have been supplying refurbished donated computers from Canda for the past year and half. We have been able to supply 500 computers into this war -torn country. Sierra Leone has had a ten year civil war in which all the infracturture was damaged. However our efforts have been hamppered because most areas don't have any power supply. I am kindly asking if there was any way you could extend your program in this country. This is a country that has been listed as the second world' poorest country. Once again I want to thank you very much for the difference you are trying to make in the lives of people. Thanks in advance. Kind regards"

"Greetings. I am the Chairman & CEO of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. Our mission is to bring electricity to all Nigerians, grid and off-grid... our commission is interested in low cost and sustainable energy for the nation. Pls, let me how we can develop this project including PPP."

"I am an American citizen of Dominican background and I would like to find out how to bring this program to the Dominican Republic. Thank you.    "

"I live in Sri lanka. I am a Candian citizen. Would you be interested in starting a similar project out here. Thanks"

We are flattered by these messages, but what can we do? Growing organically and managing expectation is what has kept us alive and gotten us to where we are today.  Diluting our attention and resources could have devastating consequences for us right now.  Right now we need more support and we need to stay focused on refining our models.  When our business model is to the point where it's robust enough to be replicated (with constant modification of course) around the world, we'll push ahead.  The world wants blueEnergy and we want to deliver it, it's just a matter of figuring out the small details to bridge the two desires :)

If you want to dedicate yourself to helping us make this a reality, please visit us here.

On my trip to Nicaragua in late September / early October 2007 I figured it out.  

For all intensive purposes, Hugh Piggott is the originator of the wind turbine technology we employ.  Some of the deep technical roots go further back, but he put it all together and popularized it.  However, Hugh comes from a particular paradigm - hobbyists building "one-of-a-kind" machines that they will look after personally.  I don't use the term "hobbyist" lightly - some people depend on these systems for all their electricity.  I just mean that they are tinkerers - people with craft skills and an interest in the minute details of small wind technology, and who are mostly into it for personal use.

Then Dan Bartmann and his Otherpower.com crew came along and started building larger quantities of Piggott-inspired turbines.  They started looking at "series" production issues but were still producing for a dedicated, "hobbyist" (again not diminishing the importance of the turbines to these people) crowd.

blueEnergy's innovation, as I can now clearly see, is in taking this technology into the development realm (ie. the developing world) and making it work when the builders and users aren't necessarily wind fanatics, the conditions are tough and the demand is enormous.  In this paradigm, ease of use and reliability are of the utmost importance.  

The development paradigm requires a lot of innovation at the process level to make the technology work for people and at a reasonable cost.  At the base level, you need technology that is "appropriate" - ie. that is workable in a particular environment.  But having a workable technology is only the beginning.  Getting it to actually work requires tremendous effort on the social side of creating human systems to support the technological system. 

blueEnergy’s innovation is the wrapper that makes the workable technology of small scale wind power actually work in real-life environments in the developing world.