
How Nicaraguan Villagers Built Their Own Electric Grid - jonbaer
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/how-nicaraguan-villagers-built-their-own-electric-grid
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ghshephard
Whenever I see articles on remote electric grids, it always inspires me to
(re)read this classic page:
[http://ludens.cl/paradise/turbine/turbine.html](http://ludens.cl/paradise/turbine/turbine.html)

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Animats
That's great! That's a nice little hydro plant.

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ghshephard
I particularly like how he wire-wraps his own transformer. Actually, goes even
further - builds his own 10 kVa wirewrapping machine, because the old one that
his friend gave him as a present wasn't large enough.

I think it says something about the guy (and his friends) that his friends
give him transformer wire-wrapping machines as presents.

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jacquesm
I handwound a stator and I would have been _very_ happy with such a present...
That's a ton of work if you want to do it nicely.

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NeutronBoy
I have nothing to add, except to say what a fantastic article!

It's so cool to see people working on things like this. In my eyes, this has a
much great impact than another mobile-app-social-network-for-sharing-pictures,
and is definitely something I'd like to get involved somehow at one point in
my career.

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agumonkey
We'll have to forgive the mainstream for being mainstream and following
newness like digital/web/apps as shallow and even saddening as it can be.

I too hope to see small scale 'decentralized' human effort to enhance areas
this way. Even in so-called 'developed' countries, there are rural regions
falling out and people are still relying on the idea of a powerful state to
take care of things whereas the reality is that the energy/desire is gone and
companies don't care about small markets like these. Sooner or later people
will realize that they're on their own. For the better.

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bcks
When I visited Nicaragua 10+ years ago, I was impressed by Grupo Fenix, a mix
of locals and visitors who build solar cookers and photovoltaic systems for
rural communities. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved
with this sort of thing, they have a volunteer program:
[http://www.grupofenix.org](http://www.grupofenix.org)

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jacquesm
For background on the Nicaraguan 'Contras':

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras)

Benjamin Linder seems to have been a genuinely nice guy working to put his
skills at use to really move the needle, it's a real pity he was murdered for
trying to do good.

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pjc50
Via that link,
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_re...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions)
\- good to see someone producing a convenient wiki list.

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krupt
wow, Spectrum is incredibly unfriendly to viewing in a full-width browser
window. I still feel a bit nauseous from having 2/3 of the screen width filled
with giant distractions that pulsate and move when I accidentally mouse over
them.

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GeorgeHahn
I've created a userstyle that makes IEEE Spectrum palatable. If you use
Stylish, check it out: [https://userstyles.org/styles/112927/ieee-spectrum-
suckless](https://userstyles.org/styles/112927/ieee-spectrum-suckless)

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badlam
US and USSR, wherever they went left destruction, broken societies and
economies, Nicaragua, rest of Africa, Afghanistan...

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ascotan
For some reason I imagined a bunch of villagers holding hands in a chain while
the guy on the end is touching a transformer.

