Solar Ovens and the Red Brick People May 6, 2009

One arrangement we made before our trip was to visit the regional office of E+CO (www.eandco.net), a nonprofit that specializes in clean and renewable energy in the developing world. Several clients of Natural Investments LLC have invested in their People + Planet Notes, so we were eager to see how this money has been allocated in Bolivia. They put us in touch with their South America Representative, Gonzalo Rico Calderon, and via email we sketched out a tour of three major projects.

From Gonzalo’s office we could actually see the first project. He resides in Cochabamba, a city well-known to anti-globalization activists for resisting efforts to privatize its water system. He pointed to a pipeline descending from the nearby mountains towards the city. This is part of the municipal water supply, but previously the water came down a gully, causing erosion and wasting lots of water. Gonzalo, an engineer by trade formerly ran the National Electric Company, saw that there was an opportunity to install a hydro electric plant using this water. Now there is a modern turbine that feeds power into the grid while the pipeline prevents erosion and loss of water.

The second project only involved a small amount of funding from E+CO but is directly changing the lives of many women. Sobre de Roca is a small company making solar ovens.

We had a great connection with Sobre de Roca’s founder Ruth Saavedra, a true solar enthusiast (and friend of Tara Miller, a good friend of ours in Paonia who has brought solar ovens to an island on Lake Titicaca).

Ruth took us to a neighborhood where she trained a coordinator to bring solar ovens to various homes and provide the support needed to assure that they get used. We made unannounced visits to over a dozen homes to see if they were being used. In all of them the women proudly showed us what they were cooking in the sun that day, chicken and rice, soup, andean potatoes and one was baking a cake! The ovens enable the families to save money by reducing their need for propane, and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Come to think of it, maybe we in the USA can learn something from Bolivia!

We only had a little time for fun in Cochabamba. Patricia (Gonzalo’s assistant) took us to a mansion that was built by a tin baron. It was another example of how the natural wealth of Bolivia has enriched mostly foreigners. To our surprise, we were required to wear face masks when we got to the house due to the Swine Flu.

For the third project we traveled to La Paz. Above the high altitude capital are clay cliffs that are being hacked away with hand tools. This is the home of the red brick people, a collection of about 30 individual micro-producers, all making hollowed out red bricks that are a choice material for construction.

The fuel to fire the bricks has traditionally been whatever they could find, including sawdust, used motor oil and various wood scraps. Black soot comes belching out, and the working conditions of the fire tenders require long hours and are dangerous. A few producers are still using this method.

E+CO helped all of the interested producers form an association that was able to bring in a natural gas line and build modern kilns. The result is a much cleaner and healthier means of production.

These three projects were very different from each other. Yet each one helped deploy cleaner technologies in a way that improves the environment and people’s daily lives. Gonzalo was an excellent host and we learned much about the challenges facing Bolivia and how hard it is to do business here. E+CO is fortunate to have someone on the ground with his many year’s of experience in both technical aspects and legal affairs. This kind of support is essential if well-intentioned investments are to translate into positive social, environmental and financial returns.

Advertisement