Wind Energy in Dominica

Dominica is an island of the Lesser Antilles blessed with abundant renewable energy resources. As a Windward Island, one of these precious resources is prevailing wind that blows from an easterly direction. With the highest mountains in the Caribbean, wind is funneled up from the ocean to the prominent ridgelines. At the present time, there are not any commercial wind farms existing on the island. Research is currently being done to determine the viability of such a project. However, the intention of this workshop was not to perpetuate the building of a commercial wind farm that would only supply the existing energy monopoly. But rather, to develop the feasibility of more sustainable power supplies on an individual, home, or small business basis.

Three Rivers’ Resort, an eco-lodge with Green Globe 21 certification, located on the eastern coast of Dominica in the city of Rosalie, demonstrates a true model of ecotourism. The resort is completely off the grid and receives all its electricity from the
sun.  The water supply is pumped from one of the surrounding rivers using a
slow water pump that is silent in operation as to prevent any disturbance to
local wildlife.  The hot water that is provided to the guests is heated using a thermo-siphon solar hot water system, constructed out of many recycled parts (including egg crates). The resort uses biodegradable soaps, washing liquids, floor and surface cleaners.  All of its gardens are completely organic and are protected against insects using organic pest control, such as lime juice, garlic, and chili pepper.  The owner, Jem Winston, has converted his diesel truck to run on veggie oil, reducing the amount of harmful emissions that enter the atmosphere and recycling used oil from local restaurants.  He offers free educational tours of the property to local people and surrounding schools and provides workshops in solar power, solar hot water, and organic farming to all visitors.  The eco-lodge is currently working with Lifeline Ministries to organize an
educational center to explore sustainable community living.

While the wind group did not have an official, extensive project in Dominica we did get to put our wind knowledge to work. To illustrate that the potential for wind is great in a number of places, Jem expressed interest putting a wind turbine on his property. This turbine would most likely power a few light bulbs in the treehouse and the Carib grass hut on the hill behind Three Rivers’ central location. Based on these power needs, it would be practical for Jem to purchase a micro- or mini- wind turbine. The wind group was a little disappointed not have a big project to focus on, but wanted to learn more about wind projects in action. So, the wind group paid a visit to an organic farm in Dominca that is reliant on an off-grid, hybrid wind/solar system. It was wonderful to see such a self-sustaining farm. Back in America, the wind group made a trip to a wind turbine in Massachusetts that runs the entire town of Hull’s streetlight system. Interestingly, the town is considering another location for a second turbine.

One advantage of not having an official project was that we had the opportunity to work on each of the other projects. We were able to learn about and help out with the veggie oil workshop. We helped work on two different micro-hydro units. Springfield’s unit was almost completely installed and had only a few extraneous issues to be worked out. One of those included protecting the 500 feet of PVC piping that constitutes the penstock. Often times, UV rays can degraded PVC piping over time. The first signs of degradation include white chalky appearance or brittle plastic. In order to prevent this from occurring over time, Janice, Lorelei, and Danielle painted the pipe green with a thick coat of outdoor latex paint. In successive years the coat of paint will have to be inspected and may require subsequent layers of paint. Right before we were about to turn on the unit for a test run, we suggested opening the gate valve to clean it out. We were happy that we did because there was a lot of debris built up.

At Three Rivers Eco-Lodge we first helped conduct a hydro workshop to teach Dominicans how to measure head and flow to evaluate a good location for a micro hydro unit. Later in the week we helped dam a section of the river. Next we layed down the concrete for the intake tank.

In addition to working on various energy projects we also helped the owner of Three Rivers, Jem to build bamboo shutters for a treehouse that he rents out. We also worked with power tools to build a railing to prevent visitors from falling out of the treehouse.

To learn about the basics of putting up a small or micro wind turbine, we suggest looking at our Microsoft Power Point presentation available at:

http://www.uvm.edu/~gflomenh/Dominica/powerpoints/WINDpresentation.ppt