Wednesday, December 12, 2007

"The Creation Story", Photovoltaic Style

In the beginning, there were meetings, LOTS of meetings. We talked about our roles, life together, visions of success for the project, our understanding of the system, the list could go on and on and on...Let's just say our butts got sore.

And then, on the 47th day (or so), there was a dock. A beautiful dock made of local Chilean oak protruding into the lagoon, our primary water source. And we all stood back and gleamed, "This is good!" And then, on the 53rd day (again, an approximation), there was a specially-designed, curvacious pump mount hanging from the dock. And we exclaimed, "This is really good!"

From there, we lost track of the days, but somehow managed to accomplish the following:

--Manufacture three solar panel mounts, of our own design, in a metal shop in Santiago

--Find (harder than you might think) and buy (some stores continually tried to rip us off) all the little bits and pieces of wiring, boxes, breakers, conduit, pipes, nuts, and bolts we needed

--Paint all of the panel mounts

--Attach all three panel mounts to the cement tanks and 8 panels to each mount

--String all the wires together without any trips to the hospital!

--Dig trenches and lay all the pipes and conduit (hundreds of meters worth, mind you)
And then came the moment of truth... We proclaimed confidently in unison (with our fingers crossed behind our backs), "Let there be water!" And we saw that there was water, smelly green pond water gushing forth from 50 mm DN10 HDPE pipe that we had worked so hard to source as a more sustainable alternative to PVC. And we rejoiced!...and started writing the final report, with the proverbial seventh day of rest in sight.