Renewable energy solutions for development of rural villages and desert communities

Abstract

Sustainable community development can't be pursued as a sectarian initiative. In fact, the special importance of the effort outlined in this paper as a program of action lies in its integrated approach, its attempt to combine renewable energy technology promotion and youth employment, construction of new settlements, poverty eradication, social integration and equality into coordinated and participatory plan of action. This paper reports on the progress of two unique grassroots initiatives: one that started 1974 in a small rural village at the heart of the Nile-Delta called Basaisa and one that started 1992 in a new-desert community called New Basaisa at 8 Km north of Ras Sudr in South Sinai, Egypt. The paper describes the renewable energy technologies used and the approaches that work as well as the problems facing its wide implementation and the achievements to date. Small photovoltaic power units were used in both sites as multifunction units, producing electricity for training and education, some time for TV, some time for the Friday pray in the Mosque, and other times for production activities in small workshops for income generating activities. Knowing that one source of energy can't satisfy all needs in a community, other renewable technologies were used like biogas, wind and solar water heating. The paper also presents a vision of integrated approach to planned internal migration and construction of settlements as new productive eco-desert communities outside the overcrowded narrow Nile-Valley and Delta.