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Until a few months ago, the Honduran villages of El Santuario (Choluteca) and Torrecilla (Nacaome) were among the more than 800 million people who, according to the United Nations (UN), currently lack modern energy. Today, this is no longer the case.

And it is not thanks to the project "Zero Carbon Rural Communities", conceived by the Institute of Energy Engineering (IIE) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), led and coordinated by the UPV itself, fully funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and which has had as partners the Spanish companies Monsolar, Genia Global Energy and Vestel Ingeniería, as well as the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH).

The joint venture has benefited 1050 inhabitants of 126 homes in both villages, which now have two hybrid renewable energy smart microgrids, comprising two photovoltaic plants with 40kWp of solar panels (one per village), two 25kW biomass gasifiers as a support system (one per village), battery banks with a storage capacity of 50kWh per group (4 per village), and 50kW inverters for connection to the grid, 50kW inverters for the connection of solar modules, 8kW grid managers (6 per village), smart consumption meters, data acquisition and energy generation and demand management systems, as well as electricity distribution networks and prosumer organisations for the management of energy services.

Energy needs are met with a lower CO2 emission system

Thanks to these interventions, valued respectively at 275,000€ (El Santuario) and 350,000€ (Torrecilla, where the houses are physically more separated), both villages have annual supplies of 73,000 kWh and 87,000 kWh of energy in the form of electricity obtained from renewable resources, sufficient to cover uninterruptedly the direct needs of the people in the community, as well as the indirect needs through community services.

With an expected consumption per home of 86.15 kWh/month - the recommended consumption for a decent life in rural areas - and a payment capacity - expressed by the community itself - of 6.5 euros per home/month, the sustainability of the projects has been made possible by covering the costs of operation, maintenance and amortisation, as well as significant reductions in the greenhouse effect concerning what would have been achieved by electrification with diesel or with a connection to the Honduran electricity grid.

"From 4 kilometres away," explains Tomás Gómez, director of the IIE-UPV and coordinator of the project, "it is directly better to build a local power plant, and since we are going to do it, let's do it with renewables. It is absurd to replicate costly and unsustainable systems such as diesel or other groups".

The choice of communities is key

"This project is a confluence of many actors," says Gómez. "FAO works on avoiding migration by giving people opportunities beyond food and water. We work on rural electrification with renewables, and engineering companies such as Monsolar, Genia and Vestel are specialists in renewables.

"This," adds the UPV Researcher, "together with local partners such as ACICAFOC and UNAH, who have identified very committed communities - who do not seek solutions for each family but rather joint solutions, which guarantees the sustainability of the project over time - makes us take the risk.

"They have already set up hairdressing salons, mechanics' workshops, poultry shops and community places to store medicines and food".

"What we found when we got there," recalls Gómez, "was a lot of poverty. And that's the word, poverty. People who lived in the sun, who couldn't afford computers and other things that are normal for us and that they need to make themselves heard, to put their products on the market or whatever. Problems with transport, mobility... there was no street lighting, so you're at the mercy of what might happen at night".

"However, in addition to this great need", continues the director of the IIE-UPV, "we also found a great strength, which we have used to get them to commit to the project. So, together with us, they have co-designed the project, co-implemented it, and been trained. Right now, they are keeping it alive. If a very specialised piece of equipment fails, it has to be replaced, but everything else- the mechanics, the electrics, the agroforestry- has learned to do it, and they do it well. The people we trained in El Santuario have helped us in Torrecilla.

Thanks to this, "we believe and trust that this infrastructure will be in place for many years. They have already set up hairdressing salons, mechanics workshops, poultry shops, and community places to store medicines and food in cold storage.

Sun and biomass

The UPV's work has been "to lead and coordinate the project in a country like Honduras, where the administrations do not work particularly well, as well as contributing elements of innovation such as the hybridisation of different renewable energy sources. They have non-manageable energy sources, such as the sun, wind and water, and we had to complement them with manageable ones. In this case, it has been biomass, which we have combined with the sun, applying criteria of minimum cost and maximum use of the sun.

"So far," says Gómez, "everything is working very well. Some problems have arisen, such as the differential tripping in transformers, but they have solved them themselves. When they call us, we always joke that 'everything has already broken down' and, when it comes down to it, it's only to ask us questions like: 'Can I buy this refrigerator?' or ‘Can I buy this plasma TV?'. The answer is always, 'If it's within your power at home, sure'.

"Yes, we want to do more projects and have a beautiful possibility."

"These projects have been great news for local communities, and we have a lot of requests, but we have to be very careful when choosing communities. They have to be self-managing; not all communities are at that level. Often, each family works things out independently, or factions are fighting over resources. This is human, but it rules them out.

In any case, Torrecilla will not be the last intervention of the IIE-UPV: "Yes, we want to do more projects, and we are looking for funding where there is funding. We have several possibilities, but one looks very good and will probably be the one we will prioritise".

These projects "show that this technology is cheaper and more viable to electrify and provide modern energy to people who, unfortunately, would otherwise take many years to connect to an electricity grid".

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