M’MUOCK RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT (MREP) TEST PHASE GOES OPERATIONAL

Beneficiaries around the Molah Palace in our partner community, M’uock Fossimondi, can now enjoy electricity generated by the GREEN STEP e.V. produced water turbine.

Travels

  A team of five persons travelled in two sets on the 5 th and on the 7 th of February 2009 to M’muock Fossimondi at Lebialem Division in the South West Region of Cameroon, all the way from Buea – a distance estimated at 310 Km.

Asonganyi Joseph had the credit of ensuring that the first set, Cornelia Ehlers and Njonguo Edwin travelled safely to M’muock, alongside some of the bulk of the wind and water turbine components transported knocked-down. He even did the wonderful job of driving back to Buea on the 6th and again to M’muock on the 7th with the rest of the team, that is, Johannes Hertlein and Reinhold Hertlein , as well as the rest of the bulk of the materials needed for erecting the wind and water turbine demo sites. On Monday the 9th of February, the above five were further joined by Nkemalem Francis from Menji who will be working in the technical department of the Project.

Water Turbine Demo Site

Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th were basically used to put together the materials needed for the demo site, such as sand, gravel, and other tools. Musa Tezeh of M’muock village was of great assistance in ensuring these. It was even very interesting to know that the indigenes were willing to sell some materials at reduced prices in order to see development come to them the soonest possible.

Meanwhile, Cornelia went straight into business as she began the training of the women’s groups and the school clubs on environmental issues the very next day.

With the arrival of the rest of the team on Saturday the 7th , Sunday the 8th saw a very busy day  for the G  REEN STEP e.V. team as work began at exactly 9:00am with a 10km drive down to Molah Palace from the Mbelenka Market Square, and eventually, the transportation of the construction materials from the palace to the less than a kilometre waterfall called “Fohlepai”. A concrete was constructed at the foot of the waterfall to fix the small water turbine to the ground in order to avoid loosing it to any unscrupulous individual or group. Reinhold particularly did a good job here.

A provision of 48 hours was made for the concrete to fully solidify, then followed another visit to the site on Wednesday the 11th when a dam was constructed at the top of the waterfall to direct much water into the PVC pipe that connects to the turbine. The initial flow had just little pressure, unable to rotate the generator, but with the idea of the technicians, Johannes and Reinhhold, assisted by Edwin, Francis, Joseph, Chief Festus Fonang, Musa Tezeh and a few others from the Molah Palace and it’s neighbourhood, the dam was given another phase which finally brought the desired water-flow, and hence rotating the generator of the water turbine. Asked what his overall impression was at that stage, Johannes said “I think we are now generating electricity”, and truly, electricity was being generated.

The challenge even lied ahead to stabilise the fluctuating flow of electricity. It meant redoing the dam, straightening the PVC pipe and reconnecting it into the water turbine, as well as stopping all leakages. It could take less than an hour to accomplish this task but it was more demanding and quite technical. Renewed brainstorming and plunging back to work finally had the electricity detection metre reading properly by midday. Three hours later, the metre reading indicated that something was not going right, this time, a minor concern. Reinforcing the blockade at the dam to step up the water level for increased pressure automatically solved the problem, and today, we can proudly say that it is working – the indicator metre and bulbs could show.

Whereas, seven interested beneficiaries were selected by the community to test the electricity generated by the water turbine. Two of whom were chosen to manage the demo site.

The two managers, Nkemtiafie Thomas and Nkemeloh David, were on Wednesday the 11th of  February 2009 drilled by Johannes and Edwin on how to go about the process and what is expected of them. It was particularly reiterated to them that the batteries should never go below 11.5 volts, neither should they exceed 14.2 volts. Overcharge and undercharge circuit controllers are however, built in the battery boxes to switch of automatically when maximum or minimum level respectively is attained. They found it very interesting and are already doing the job right.

The beneficiaries paid a refundable deposit of 10,000 frs cfa each and collected a set of 12volt car battery and bulb provided by GREEN STEP e.V. Beneficiaries take the battery to the charging point and pay a fee of 600 frs each time the battery is charged, and the electricity in the battery can light up a house for up to 10 days before it can be recharged again.  

Wind Turbine Demo Site

The GREEN STEP e.V./NKONG HILL TOP team worked on the wind turbine site on Monday the 9th of February from 8:00 am and were visited by Dr. Erecting the wind turbine was really communual work as the village community could not wait to enjoy electricity from such source for the very first time. They contributed in the cutting of the poles and erecting of the turbine as instructed. Work at this site will

Coping With a Work Partner in Language Barrier

The eight days passed on the field was that of actual division of labour, improved specialisation, and yet committed team work and total collaboration amongst the entire team. Sign Communication and Irrigation skills are some skills we developed and learnt as Reinhold only speaks German while Edwin speaks English. It was very fascinating as both of them paired up perfectly and did the job successfully.

Moreso, the inreased rate of water shortage at M’muock especially during the dry season calls for innovative techniques. Mending and linking pipes were only a provisional solution. GREEN STEP e.V. and NKONG HILL TOP are presently researching on Ram Pump Technology for irrigation to relief M’muock of the critical water crisis.

© Njonguo Edwin, February 2009.

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