The Power Challenge

Solar power seemed quite promising. Clean. Maintenance free (just about). Long lasting. Reliable. All the discussions in Buhugu was taking us in this direction.

Oh but the cost! At around $5 for one watt, we will run up a bill of $17,500 for the projected 3.5 kilowatts. And that's just to get our hands on the panels. Then there is the matter of transportation and installation. Anyway, our entire operating budget currently is a mere fraction of this rather insane amount.

Why not seek funding? We could and we did, without much success. But, this not being a scalable solution, even if we were to get some funding, we started looking elsewhere.

Given that Buhugu is connected to the power grid (though the supply is erratic), some combination of a generator and car batteries would solve the immediate challenge. These are not ideal given the environmental impact and the continuous operating cost for fuel and maintenance.

So, for the long term, we are exploring such options as bio-gas.