The equipment has arraived from Kabul !

13.02.2008

The transport of the equipment has taken a long time, but today it arrived in Ranikhet. It was a long transport with aircraft from Kabul through Bahrain to New Delhi. A lot of beauracracy at customs and the last part by car to Ranikhet. The last transport normaly takes 9 to 10 hours, but it took 2 days. Through toll tax where papers had to be stamped and a motor break down enroute where the car had to stay 1 day in a workshop to be fixed.

Many people where gathered when the turbine arrived

Austegard and Mr. Pandey are studying the turbine

Austegard is examining the electronic controller before the testing

Two experts are meeting

12.02.2008

In the process of establishing the micro hydro plant we have established a very good working relation with Mr. Verma in Ranikhet. Mr. Verma is an expert in power distribution working in the districts of Nainital and Almora and he has shown a great interest in the pilot project. Tomorrow the electronic controller will be tested at the office in Ranikhet. Mr. Verma and Austegard are communicating very well, and we believe that Mr. Verma will be a key person in establishing the pilot project.

 Mr. Verma and Austegard at the office in Ranikhet

News from India

11.02.2008

To day we have been to a new visit to Jabar village where the turbine has been planned to be installed. We had a meeting with the key people in the village and tehy informed us that there has been an earth slide where the river leaves the lake Taragtal and there were some wory that there will not be enough wather for erigastion and power genreation. After some discussion we therefor decided to start looking for an alternative pilot site. This work will start at once. In the next 3 days we will work with knowledge transmission for reproduction of the turbine and another equipment locally in Ranikhet. We will also study some tests of the electronic controller. All the equipment is at the moment on the way from Delhi, and we expect it to arrive Ranikhet late tonight

News from India

09.02.2008

Austegard and Mjølhus arrived Ranikhet Friday night. They came by car from Delhi together with Jogendra Bisht. So far has the stay in India been very rich. They have met Chief Minister in the Uttarakhand state to promote the micro hydropower plant project, and Lars have been at a reception in the Norwegian Embassy during the official visit  the Norwegian Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg did in India this week.

Mjølhus in conversation with Chief Minister Maj. Gen. BC Khanduri and Mr. Sriprakash Kandpal. Chief Minister to the left.

Indian project coordinator Jogendra Bisht in conversation with Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Micro hydro power

05.02.2008

Austegard and  Mjølhus has arrived Delhi where they will carry on their work with the Micro hydro power plant.  The turbine and other equipment have arrived Delhi. In the next 2-3 weeks they will working with the following tasks:

1. Transfer knowledge about the turbine to a local workshop in Ranikhet in order to start local production in the Himalayas.
2. Establish a testlab for the ELC, electronic controller, which will keep the voltage stable to the end users.
3. Carry out  more detailed messurements together with the local project coordinator who will supervise the village when building the the turbine house, and the rest of the infrastructure for the power plant.
4. Meeting with the Chief Minister in Uttarakhnad to inform about the project and to ask for support and coorporation for this  project. The meeting will take place in Delhi the 5th of February.

Student visit  from Himalaya to Trondheim

 14.01.2008

In the periode from 6th of November 2007 to the 9th of January Ajay Rastogi has studied two subjects at the institute of Philisopy at NTNU. The subjects has been "Technology for a Good Society" og "Corporate Responsibility and Ethics".  Ajay is married and his home village is only 12 km from Ranikhet where the contacts of Friends of Himalaya lives. He knows both Jogendra and Aksay, so the world is not too big ... During his stay in Trondheim Ajay took part in a meeting about Nepal at NTNU and accompanied Mjølhus at a Rotary meeting in Palmehaven where Mjølhus had a presentation of Uttarakhand and the Micro hydro project. Ajay also meet other persons from Trondheim which have been  tracking in the Himalaya and he took part in the Norwegian cellebration of Christmas and New Year.

 

Here from a visit to Bjørg and Lars Mjølhus

Ajay is now back in India where he will work with Fair Trade for about a month before he finishes his studies in the Netherlands. We will probabley hear more from him.  

Micro hydre power plant in  Jabar village

12.12.2007

In February 2007 Anders Austegard and Lars Mjølhus where visiting north India to identify a place for the first  micro hydro plant based on technology from Afghanistan. They made field messurments in three villages and they deceided to try the Jabar village. The micro hydro plant will be based on a simple turbine type which has been used succesfullt in Afghanistan. This turbine is produced in small workshops in the Kabul  and the plan is to establish production of the same turbine in the Indian Himalaya region. It is the Afghanian company Remote HydroLight which is the supplier of both knowlwdge and technology.