Switch On

[Scott Tinker] After assembling a team and procuring the equipment, we had come back to the tiny Arhuaco Village of Gunchukwa to build a solar micro-grid as we had promised on our visit last year.

[gentle music] Before we could begin, the Arhuacos invited our volunteers to also go through the cleansing ritual in their sacred river.

[gentle music] [speaking in foreign language] - Okay.

So we are going to put this one, one in the right and another one in the left.

[speaking in foreign language] Okay.

[gentle music] [giggling] [gentle music] [energetic music] There are nearly three billion people today who still live with little or no energy.

And what I want to know is how they'll finally get it.

So this is sort of what it was, and that's the future.

- That's the future.

[both chuckling] - I'm Scott Tinker and I study energy.

Come with me around the world to meet people and communities as they Switch On.

[energetic music] [hammer tapping] It takes a lot of expertise to build a solar micro-grid, especially in very remote areas.

Fortunately, Steve from Solar Electric Light Fund has spent his entire career doing exactly this.

- We do wanna start off as squares.

- All right.

[Scott] He planned every step of the install and would train the team as we went along.

- All right.

First run down.

[Scott] He had accounted for and Derek had procured and shipped every part.

The boards to build the concrete foundations, the screws to hold them together and the tools to build them.

[Worker 1] Oh, you just stick them out a bit and then tap them down.

[Worker 2] That's what I did.

[Scott] These included a few power tools.

And in their fully charged batteries, we even brought in electric.

[drill whirring] Even with all our preparation on day one, we hit our first hurdle.

What's wrong?

Not working?

The frames for the solar panels weren't made correctly.

Let's see.

You know, see if there's a drill bit about this size.

We can just tap a little bit of a new hole in there.

You know what it might be?

This one.

Those are pretty close actually.

[Steve] What if you bored those two out that you're mating right there and bored them out and gave a little on each side.

[Scott] I could.

That's the one.

All right buddy, here we go.

[drill whirring] [file scraping] That should do it then.

We should be bueno.

Thank you.

[blows] Once we had re-drilled the holes for all the brackets, we discovered some of the braces were the wrong length.

[gentle music] This is weird too.

These are all 35.

This one's 30.

Geez.

- Yeah, but look, we have two more holes here that... - You could shorten this one and make it like this?

- Yep.

- And then we could do that.

But this is what they or... Or we can take them all apart and these are a pain to put together.

And you can see where they messed up, they drilled multiple holes in these, multiple holes in those.

[thunder roaring] [rain pattering] [rain pattering] - We have plenty of battery.

- That one is easy to make a 35 because it already has one of the holes correct.

When we get the second bracket, because we're gonna have to get another little L bracket, then we'll have to drill a new hole.

But that could be done.

And then the one that's a 30 over there would need two new holes.

And then, I don't know what you got here.

The one that's you're already measuring, what are those down there?

- That one was a mix.

It was 30 and a 35.

[rain pattering] [Scott] Without our files and power tools, this small challenge could easily have derailed the entire project.

Instead, some of us reworked the frames while others took advantage of the wet earth to dig the foundations.

[shovel thudding] [Steve] It's a good idea to have that big piece of wood over there.

'Cause if you level point to point, you don't know what's happening over there.

So we wanna level all the way across.

- Okay.

- Let's go with that, that'll be good.

[hammer tapping] We got just a couple more nails to put in on the side.

These guys are anxious to try this array.

Right now we should be about an inch off.

[Worker] Yep, we are.

- We've got a pretty good line.

We've got a little distance here to do adjustments.

So we're off to a pretty good start.

I think with that and the sunset coming, let's call it a day.

Good work everybody.

[workers clapping] [birds chirping softly] [uplifting music] - See how we do.

Are we at 104?

103 and a half.

- Oh, that's even better actually.

- It's just like that.

[worker chuckling] [uplifting music] [Scott] One of our few hired professionals was a mason, to prepare the concrete and pour the foundations.

The grid part of a solar micro-grid is the wiring that runs underground from the solar panels to the battery and between the huts.

For this, the Arhuacos farmers brought their own skillset and the stamina to dig hundreds of feet of trenches for the conduit.

[Scott] I think when we left a year and a month ago, we all had that moral conflict within us.

The conflict of will this improve this community or not.

The challenge, I believe that they're wise enough to know about and face is here in the beautiful Sierra Nevada, places like this are becoming encroached upon and I think they know that they have to be part of that.

And my hope is through all of you and those that we reach, we can communicate what they bring and share.

So that this busy, crazy world that we come from can become more like this one.

And if we can be one small voice in how to find that balance, then I think we will have made a little bit of a difference.

The village had built a small hut to house the batteries, which given its weight would require its own foundation.

[shovels scraping] [mattock thudding] [Scott] Great work this morning, everybody.

Great couple of days.

I think nobody's backs are broken yet but we're getting close.

[workers chuckling] We were thinking about what we could do.

We thought we'd leave a little memento for the future.

We thought we'd leave it for the distant future.

So what we're going to do before we pour the last concrete mold is we have a time capsule.

- Wow.

- And this says, "For our friends, the wonderful people of Gunchukwa, from your friends at Switch and Self.

And then you sign your name... [Woman] In the fresh concrete?

- No, we'll sign it here.

[workers laughing] And we put it in here and it goes in the concrete and the concrete goes all around.

So it'll be there for 10,000 years for somebody to find.

Grab that end, let's put this in for all time.

There we go.

[gentle music] [children and workers playing] - What a pass.

- Come on, Albert.

[players cheering and clapping] [players cheering] - That was a quick turnaround.

[players grunting and sighing] [cheering] - Oh my god.

[children and workers playing] - After all that work?

[children and workers playing] [gentle music] - All right, brother D. Watch the trench.

- All right.

First panel.

[gentle music] - Gorgeous morning.

Hey.

Ready for us?

It's pretty close.

- Is that good?

- That's a 32nd.

- Yep, I think I got about the same.

I think that's it.

- This is perfect sun.

[Steve] Mm, yeah.

- No trees.

Great clearing.

As long as we don't get the goats doing the tango on these things.

First panel.

[cheering] It's good.

[Steve] You're just getting them in spots.

So these two are already here then.

This one looks like it's gonna need loosened.

- We got 36.8.

So we got 35.5.

[Steve] The voltage goes down as it heats up.

If you come out here in an hour, that voltage will have dropped and that's what we expect.

- Hey Steve, we got 34.4.

- So what's gonna happen is all those voltages are gonna add up to something now over 100 volts DC, which is something to be respected.

[goats bleating] All right.

[Steve] All right.

We got a kilowatt in here.

Three kilowatts.

[Scott] Congratulations.

[Scott and Steve chuckling] [Scott] It's awesome.

At last, we had the panels installed, but this was just the first step.

[gentle music] [Steve] Okay, now I'm gonna just pull it all through.

[Scott] While we finished wiring them, the Arhuacos built a fence to separate the now electrified equipment from children and animals.

[hammer thudding] [inspirational music] [drill whirring] [goats bleating] With the conduit trenches dug, we were ready to place the light for the village square in its foundation.

The Arhuacos had turned a tree into this light post.

The green tropical hardwood was nearly as heavy as steel.

[indistinct chatter] This was something the Arhuacos wanted, to encourage communal gatherings.

It's fitting that it took a community to lift it into place.

[indistinct chatter] [indistinct chatter] - Hold it.

- Con control.

- It needs to go up in the back.

- Lift, lift-- - Lift, lift more, more.

We're on the form.

[Osi] We are on the form.

[Osi speaking foreign language] - We can walk forward.

- We're almost there.

[Osi speaking foreign language] - No, he's on the form.

[Osi] No, no, no, no, you cannot touch the form.

- He can push against here.

- Which way?

- In English.

- Oh, lift, up, up, up.

You guys got it, up.

Take your hands out, up, up, up.

- Be careful, careful.

- Eso, eso.

[grunting] [clapping] [Steve] Now hold tight, he's gonna nail.

[Scott] Hold tight.

[hammer thudding] - I always wanted to be a brace.

- Right down the chute?

- Right down the chute.

[rooster crowing] [Scott] After we ran the conduit and wiring between the buildings, we had to run it within them.

[Steve] Essentially, what we're doing is we're protecting the wiring from kids, animals.

'Cause animals do like to chew and tubing is gonna encase the wiring.

[Scott] Steve showed us how to install the lights in every hut.

- When you buy the light you get this.

So what we did was built these up on flat piece of pressure treated wood that the termites won't eat.

And all you need to do is get it about as good as you can.

Not like that but more like down.

- That's pretty flat right there.

- That looks like it.

- All right, I'm gonna let go.

And I'm gonna come back with some more stuff for you guys.

- Great.

[Steve] A lot of electricity is about bringing the power to the load, which is the lights.

And then switches are what interrupt that power.

If you make a bad connection, it's just like a switch.

It just breaks that continuity and then nothing happens.

And then you don't know.

Is it that connection?

Is it that connection?

One error here means checking sometimes five or six places, which really sets the whole group back.

Especially, if it's Friday night and the goat's cooking and you're trying to figure out why your circuit isn't lighting and everyone else is.

- We could put a little glue on there and then.

[Scott pops tongue] I'll stand up here in the middle and pray.

- Perfect.

- Come on.

Here we go.

[wire rustling] I hear it.

I think it passed.

- Yeah, it passed through.

You should feel it soon, Paula.

- More, more, yes.

- Yes.

- You got it.

- Yes, Eric.

Yes, Paula.

- We spoke a lot about sustainability and the Achilles heel to all of these mini grid systems is the battery.

So the more times the light gets used, the more time the ceiling fans are running, the bigger the battery has to be.

And the harder it is then to raise the funds to replace the battery when the time comes.

- Ta-Da!

[workers cheering] [Scott] This refrigerator is what the Arhuacos plan to use to raise those funds.

They hope to sell enough cold drinks and popsicles over the next 8 to 10 years to raise the $10 to $15,000 for the replacement battery.

- It's very exciting that everything is going as planned.

[gentle music] Is the only place where they will find cold juice.

- That's a big fridge.

- That's a good fridge.

- That's better than my fridge.

- This is what I had... [Scott] That's a lot better than your fridge.

- And is very... don't consume too much energy.

[Scott] The battery equipment is technologically complex and when fully charged, dangerous.

So we needed more professionals to make sure it was installed correctly.

The battery will store electricity made by the panels when there's good sun.

Then distribute it over the micro-grid when the Arhuacos need power, which could be at night or when it's raining.

[Steve] This is the inverter, converts the 24 volt DC battery into 120 volt AC electricity just like we have back in the states.

Clean, smooth, continuous.

May it be used well.

This is as professional a battery rack as you can use really in these small systems.

This is really top quality industrial stuff.

And we got it because it's lead-acid battery.

Technology's pretty well known and it's very safe in use compared to let's say some of the new coming technologies that have some flammability issues.

So it should be a nice clean battery, and at the end of its life all the lead can be recycled.

So trying to do our part to keep the environment clean.

[indistinct chatter] Good work fellas.

As a battery, that's as pretty as they get.

All right.

[clapping] [Scott] The battery is certainly the biggest challenge of the solar micro-grid but it's also what makes it possible.

[Steve] It's in place.

[laughing] [Scott] Solar micro-grids are being built in off-grid villages around the world by nonprofits like SELF, for-profits that lease them to communities, and government utilities when they're a faster solution than stringing power lines.

They may not make enough power for energy intensive needs like small businesses.

But they can provide people communication and connection through cell phones, radios, and TV.

And bring light to encourage literacy, security, and community.

[bright music] Solar micro-grids are allowing off-grid communities like this one to take their first steps into the modern era.

Tonight, we would turn the lights on for the first time ever in Gunchukwa.

The village prepared for a celebration.

[upbeat music] [indistinct chatter] [upbeat music] [indistinct chatter] Meanwhile, our Colombian professionals taught the young village leaders how to maintain the battery.

This is very foreign technology for them.

But from now on, they'll be the ones responsible for their electricity system.

- Todas las dias teniendo la puerta cerrada pero hay que entrar y mirar la informacin que muestran las pantallas.

Incluso usted se puede hacer un registro y anotar... - Lo que veo ah en la pantallita... - Lo que ve en la pantalla.

- Sin manipularla.

- Claro, manipular.

- A ms me asomo y... - Y ah usted va teniendo una informacin y va haciendo un rcord de lo que est sucediendo.

- Y cuando usted venga y saca la memoria esa comparamos... [Instructor] Y comparamos y yo les dejo las informacin que hay ah.

[gentle music] [fire crackling] [gentle music] [fire crackling] It was Friday night and the goat was cooking and it was time to see if everybody got their connections right.

So we gathered everyone in the village square to turn the lights on together.

- Vengan ac cerquita.

[speaking in foreign language] - Bring everybody closer.

[Osi] Not too far, I am very close.

[Scott] We're very close.

[Woman laughing] - It's a very exciting time.

- Es un momento muy emocionante.

- A year ago, we came as strangers to Gunchukwa.

- Hace un ao vinimos como completos extraos a Gunchukwa.

- Today, we are here as friends.

You have taught us patience and balance with nature and we have brought you electricity and light.

We trust in your wisdom and the wisdom of your Mamos to use it very wisely.

And we look forward to being with you in the future.

And now, we are going to count backwards from five.

We will say five, four, three, two, one, light together.

We will do it very loudly.

Are you ready?

En espaol and ingles?

- Yes, okay.

- Ready?

- Five.

- Cinco.

- Quatro.

- Four.

- Tres.

- Three.

- Dos.

- Two.

- One.

- Uno.

- Luz!

- Light!

[cheering and clapping] [upbeat music] [Osi] It's light!

[cheering and clapping] [upbeat music] [Osi] Bravo, muchas gracias.

[Scott] On the count of three, a big duni.

One, two, three.

- Duni!

[clapping] - Muy bien.

- Gracias.

[gentle music] [gentle music]