A new apartment complex in San Isidro, or a high tech Five Star Hotel in Santa Cruz, Patagonia would seem like good places to see some of Argentina’s newest developments in alternative energy. However for one organisation, the successful implementation of alternative solar energy strategies has been helping small communities in some of the most remote parts of the country and world for over the last two decades.

Swimming towards a different horizon, EcoAndina director Silvia Rojo, her father and a few other technicians were the little fish aiming to make use of the big sea of energy when they decided to spend days upon the high Argentina Andean plateau closer to the sun as an unknown organisation investigating a new sustainable form of energy for the looming energy crisis times ahead. An ambitious and visionary initiative at the time, EcoAndina seemed to see what lay on the other side of the barren, dry, and llama-filled steeps, when they put into action the implementation of solar technology, portable water, and social development for the “Puna” region of Argentina’s Jujuy province.

Photo Courtesy of EcoAndina

Director Silvia Rojo has been apart of EcoAndina from the beginning when her father and some German friends funded the organisation in 1989.

At over 3,000 metres in altitude the environment of the Puna provides some of the most solar radiation in the world. In fact, it ranks together with places like Tibet, and Australia. This aspect combined with the fact that the extremely dry region experiences over 300 days a year of cloud-free sunshine makes solar energy a beneficial way to provide solar kitchens, water heaters, heated bathrooms, and even entire solar towns in order to better the conditions for people living in some of the most remote areas of the province. Natural materials and a majority of nationally-made products are used today to fabricate equipment for anyone including small community members near the salt flats to environmental friendly hotels being constructed in the touristy Quebrada de la Humahuaca.

Today the sun acts as EcoAndina’s number one business partner, but when the organisation began 20 years ago it was the lack water that brought the group’s founders together with an idea for change. In 1989, current EcoAndina president Silvia Rojo’s father – a geologist from Jujuy – convinced a German friend Barbara Hoizer, a biology professor and her husband Einrich Kleine-Hering, a hydrologic geologist, to come from Germany to visit the unique geologic landscape of Argentina, and to see firsthand some of the living conditions of many Jujeños in the Puna.

“My father invited them because he thought it was a good idea that they see how some of these communities got their water from rivers and didn’t have any stable drinking water,” explains Rojo. But once Einrich and Barbara arrived, they fell in love with the Puna, and decided to stay and form a group of working technicians with a goal of offering drinking water in 1991.

Photo Courtesy of EcoAndina

One of the residents of the small town Misa Rumi bakes bread by way the the community’s bread oven. A woman uses a parabolic family kitchen.

Rojo explains that the two most important factors for the Puna are the water and the energy, and the German couple soon realised after spending time on the high mountain plateau that the region wasn’t employing what they saw as the abundant sustainable energy outlet. With the help of the German Embassy and funding from a German organisation Amigos Alemanes de la Puna (German Friends of the Puna) Einrich was able to bring back solar box ovens and water heaters to see how they would work.

The atmosphere and in particular the high level of thermal energy in the Puna originally caused doubt, yet once the first couple of installations proved successful, EcoAndina began to set out on the road towards improving solar energy use in the area. The numbers show that the organisation’s goal has been steady with installations of over 320 solar family kitchens, 70 solar systems for hot water, 25 solar box ovens, 15 solar community kitchens, and nine heaters to add to a continued list of different solar equipment.

Rojo says that all of this progress is due largely to their ability to take advantage of the 200 kilowatts per hour that the Puna receives. “Here there is constant solar radiation during the whole year which makes it very easy to provide solar energy for everything,” says Rojo. “An equation that shows the clear advantage that we have here is one barrel of petroleum of 190 litres equals the solar energy produced in a metre squared per year. It is as if it were a sea of energy!”

EcoAndina has been able to complete most of its solar equipment installations in almost 30 distinct towns in the western province due to a base camp they established called EcoHuasi (ecological house) in the remote town of Misa Rumi. Rojo comments that most of the 30 towns are places which nobody visits because the highways don’t extend out towards this section of the province. “Nobody goes to this area,” says Rojo, “because most of the mountain roads fall apart with the rain. We’ve personally had six vehicles breakdown in the last 20 years.”

One reason for the high rate of lost vehicles is because of the increased amount of trips technicians from EcoAndina have been making in the last five years. Rojo is humble to point out that while EcoAndina may be seen as a progressive alternative energy movement, it is also still a very small organisation with a small infrastructure that doesn’t have a large budget for technicians. Despite EcoAndina’s low profile, Argentina’s – and the world’s – new focus on developing sustainable energies solutions has made presentations for projects based on alternative energy easier to come by. As of the year 2006, life got much busier Rojo says as eight of the ten projects presented in letters of convocation were approved by different national and international science and development foundations.

Photo Courtesy of EcoAndina

EcoAndina’s high Andean Puna base camp EcoHuasi in Misa Rumi, Jujuy.

The approval of continued projects has been good news for the organisation as they have been able to go beyond their original installation of solar kitchens and water heaters to include bigger projects. In 2008, EcoAndina completed their biggest installation project with the development of the first ‘Pueblo Solar’ (Solar town). The project decided to focus on one of the highest and most remote locations in the western province. The town Lagunillas del Farallón, at around 4,200 metres above sea level, was chosen primarily because it is a town with constant growth of around 300 plus people, and good education with both primary and secondary schools.

Instead of implementing individual solar equipment installations, the organisation decided to go ahead with a whole thermal solar system in order to provide the community with a solar kitchen with a bread oven in the school, solar bathrooms, a heater and a solar water heater so that the whole town could bathe. “There wasn’t a shower until we installed a bathroom and the people would bathe from fountains by throwing water on themselves. The thermal temperature is very wide ranging at high altitudes. You can have 20 centigrade at mid-day and -20 centigrade at night. The water and air is very cold and people do not only get sick from bathing themselves, but they also get sick from the cold environmental climate.”

The solar towns have become an important goal for the organisation as a result of the lack of combustible found in this region. The problem of desertification has taken its toll as the constant extraction of regional bushes like the yareta and tola for use as a combustible has worsened the local ecosystem. “There’s each day less firewood because the people have no other option,” says Rojo. “Propane gas in the Puna is $20 more than that in San Salvador de Jujuy. This is because the trucks carrying propane gas can’t easily arrive on the local roads. Instead people have to pay for transportation to carry them down to buy it.”

Photo Courtesy of EcoAndina

The community kitchen with a solar oven.

EcoAndina has so far seen some great improvements in combating the desertification as a result of their installations. They say solar kitchens have been proven to lower the consumption of firewood by around 50-70%. This is significant news considering a typical family consumes around five tonnes of tola firewood to cover their basic energy needs per year. While the environmental benefits regarding towns in the Puna are sure to be seen, Rojo also sees the creation of solar towns as a way to encourage people to not feel like they have to leave their homes and head to big urban centres.

“I see with lots of enthusiasm a lot of Andean solar towns, and I’m sure that we are going to have members who continue our idea and are able to give the people a lot more services in order to continue working in these remote places. In the Puna they have their sheep, their llamas, their arts and their crops to cultivate. If someone improves the places where these people live, these people will not have to centralise in the same cities.”

The future of the EcoAndina as an organisation seems to have become solidified after 20 years. Providing solar energy for the remote communities in the Puna continues to be the group’s objective, they now have a workshop for their own fabrication of equipment and are in the process of constructing a model house with solar instruments which will act as a the central offices for the organisation. The path towards establishing their solar technologies has been a 20-year long journey, and with more than half of the constructing on the house waiting for approved funds, and a beat up old truck, Rojo admits that there is never a slow moment in the search for new funding. Funding or not, Rojo understands the need for patience, but also has kept her sights forward towards the possibility of offering thermal solar plants for the generation of electricity of cities in the future.

Paul Byrne recently created this video and shared it with The Argentina Independent.

For more information about EcoAndina visit www.ecoandina.org, contact their main central location in San Salvador de Jujuy at 0388-4922275, or see Director Silvia Rojo speak on solar towns at Madero Mystic at Azucena Villaflor and Olga Cossettini in Puerto Madero at 9 a.m., Thursday, June 10th.

Over 80 businesses in Venezuela have had their electricity cut off today, for failing to comply with a government order to reduce their consumption by 20%. The companies, which range from pubs and Chinese restaurants to the country’s official distributor for Sony, will be without power for 24 hours. The government drive to reduce electricity use in Venezuela is a consequence of massive energy shortages resulting from a severe drought, which has left the country’s main hydroelectric power plant functioning at half capacity.

The decision to cut off the companies’ electricity was announced by the vice president, Elías Jaua, who said that the move was intended to send a clear message about the importance of complying with energy regulations. A government document announced that if companies continue to use too much power, next time they will lose electricity for three days, and then indefinitely.

Electricity rationing was first announced by President Hugo Chávez on 8th February, when he declared an “energy emergency” across the country and said that “high level” users would be obliged to drastically reduce their consumption.

The energy crisis follows the worst drought the country has seen in over 60 years. Dry weather has a severe effect on the nation’s ability to produce electricity, because over 60% of the country’s power comes from a hydroelectric plant, which requires high levels of water to function to full capacity.

The government maintains that energy shortages are entirely the consequence of the natural phenomenon El Niño, which has caused extreme heat and reduced rainfall across the country. However, opponents have accused Chávez of worsening the crisis through mismanagement. Yolanda Valery, a correspondent for the BBC, reported that critics have said he failed to make the necessary investments to ensure that the country’s energy supply remained consistent.

Chávez responded to accusations in a newspaper column, writing: “This [opposition] campaign has, of course, one single aim: declare Hugo Chávez guilty of everything, even the drought. Indeed, I would love to have the powers I’m accused of by the opposition to defeat this situation which not only hurts Venezuela but the whole world as a result of the destructive voracity of the capitalist system.”

Electricity shortages have led to protests and social unrest across Venezuela. Polls have also shown Chávez’s approval ratings have dropped significantly as a result of the issue.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez signed a decree on Monday declaring an “electricity emergency”. Speaking from his new radio programme, Suddenly with Chávez, he said that Venezuela was facing its worse drought in years, he said: “Today it fell another 13cm. It hasn’t rained the whole year; it’s Venezuela’s worst drought in 100 years.” But, critics claim that poor infrastructure and bad management are to blame for the problems. Chávez rejected these claims and said that the drought plus increased demand was to blame.

Venezuela depends heavily on hydropower to supply electricity to the country. Although the country has large oil reserves, 70% of its power is supplied by the Guri Dam complex on the Orinoco River, which has fallen more than 9m below normal levels.

Under the decree, energy users who consume more than 500 kilowatt-hours per month, must reduce their consumption by at least 10% or face a 75% price rise. Industrial users will also have to cut their usage by 20% or face sanctions. Blackouts are already underway in parts of Venezuela and have sparked violent protests in the capital, Caracus.

 Earlier this month Chávez announced that Cuban vice-president Ramiro Valdes would head a committee to tackle the power shortages. Yesterday he also announced that a team of Argentine experts would be arriving on Thursday to help devise new plans to combat the power problem.

Today, 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. These cities account for 75% of global energy consumption and 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. In just 20 years, two-thirds of the world’s population is projected to live in cities.

In response to the challenge of global warming and climate change, representatives of 18 of the world’s leading metropolises met in 2005 to strategize on how they could take responsibility for their municipality’s contribution to these pressing issues. In 2006, the leading world cities formed an alliance with the Clinton Climate Initiative, called themselves the C40 climate leadership group, and vowed to both reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency in their cities throughout the world.  

Seven of the 40 cities are in Latin America (Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Lima, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo), but according to the C40 website only two of those have published Climate Change Action Plans (Bogotá and Mexico City).

The delegates of all the C40 cities (as well as 17 affiliate cities) met for the third time about a month ago in Seoul, Korea at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit. The theme of this year’s four-day event was “Cities’ Achievements and Challenges in the Fight against Climate Change.” City mayors, policy makers, and experts and scholars in the climate, energy, and transportation related fields addressed the wider use of green energy, energy efficiency measures, sustainable transport, and sustainable city development (including sustainable adaptation measures).

These themes encompass some of the more major aspects of urbanism, politics, and economics and it is no small task to break the issues into manageable, actionable pieces.

Some cities are further along acting on their promises than others.

Toronto, for example, has built a partnership with Zerofootprint, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting companies, governments and individuals reduce their carbon footprint. Zerofootprint Toronto is part environmental footprint calculator and part online social network and it is “designed to graphically illustrates to users the impact every aspect of their daily lives has on the environment while allowing them to network with like-minded friends, neighbors and co-workers to create a virtual eco-community.”

In Buenos Aires, a number of initiatives are underway, namely, to increase energy efficiency in some public buildings, perform a city-wide air quality study, and begin to work towards cleaner and more efficient public transit. But the city could be doing much more to make good on its pledge.

The disparity between the actions of different C40 cities draws attention to the different challenges that cities in less developed countries face. The declaration as a result of the Seoul Summit explains, “cities in developed countries need to assist the efforts of cities in developing countries in taking actions as they are more vulnerable to climate change and have lower capacity to cope with environmental hazards.” 

Indeed. It is hard to blame Buenos Aires for lagging behind in its promise to combat greenhouse gas emissions – this city has other very pressing needs. Certainly learning about initiatives in other leading cities and access to global experts in the related fields will expose Buenos Aires’ delegates to the opportunities for positive, sustainable, urban development. Whether these opportunities are transformed into more action and faster action remains to be seen.

Personally, I have always been skeptical of these global pacts. It is easy enough for Buenos Aires to sign on to being a member of the C40 climate leadership group. It’s another thing for the city to take significant action towards its pledge to reduce carbon emissions.

This is the problem with intergovernmental institutions carrying the sustainable development torch. There is no accountability involved. The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals are a stark example. Goal number one? Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by halving the global population of those living on less than one dollar per day by 2015. Sounds good.

But is this achievable in the next six years? The percent of Africa’s population living in poverty is about 50% and hasn’t changed in 30 years. Has not the main driver behind the UN’s Millennium Development Goals’ progress on goal one been the booming industrial capitalism of East Asia, where poverty has fallen 60% in the same 30 year period?

I am skeptical that climate change will be solved by a global compact such as C40. I do, however, believe that C40 has an important role to play in strategizing solutions towards the pressing need for sustainable development. Eduardo Galeano, the Uruguayan re-writer of history and one of my favourite authors says it best: “What then is the purpose of utopia? It is to cause us to advance.”

 

Photo by Olivia Keetch

Aliens live among us. No, I’m not being euphemistic, referring to the ghastly tourists who swarm upon Buenos Aires and indeed the rest of South America in the hope of ‘finding themselves’. I am talking actual extraterrestrial, Encounters del Tercer Tipo, high possibility of ‘probing’, aliens. And they are right here in Argentina. Specifically Córdoba.

Over the town of Capilla del Monte, amongst the gorgeous sierras, where condors swoop, gauchos are real gauchos, and alfajor factories make the air sweet, looms Mount Uritorco, an ‘energetic centre’, towards which many UFOs are said to gravitate. 

Everywhere in Capilla, on walls, in offices, are posted photographs of ‘sightings’. Everyone and his second-cousin has seen a UFO, or believes whole-heartedly in their existence. In 1986, the mountain became the subject of much scrutiny when, on 9th January, 11-year-old Gabriel Gomez and his grandmother Esperanza saw a large luminous object in the sky. According to official accounts, the following morning they found a huge fire and soot imprint, 122m in length and 64m in width, on the side of Mt Pajarillo, near Uritorco and forming part of the same small mountain chain.

 

Photo by Olivia Keetch

Since that day, Mount Uritorco has become one of the most mythically important locations in the world, written about in thousands of papers, on the internet, in books, and of course, visited by thousands upon thousands of people who come searching for enlightenment, exercise, and maybe a peek at ET. 

Rare light visions have been seen around Uritorco for centuries. One rational explanation for the phenomenon could be that under certain meteorological conditions, the rock, rich in quartz, favours electric discharges of sparks, also known as St Elmo’s fire. Capilla itself is otherwise an ordinary small colonial town, so clearly the tourist board is monopolising on their claim to fame.

During my investigation, I managed to get an audience with Jorge Suarez, the director of the UFO Information Centre in Capilla del Monte. What struck me most was the zen-like quality to his character. He has written five books on Mount Uriturco, and has studied UFOs for over 20 years – a veritable alien-guru. Open-minded sceptic that I am, it was hard to swallow everything he said with a straight face: “The angels in the Bible were aliens? Oh of course – they were only given wings in pictures because people couldn’t think how else they would be flying…”

Right.

 

Photo by Olivia Keetch

I asked him what he thought about the theory that extraterrestrial creatures have built a city called Erks under the mountain, which serves as the base for their operations on Earth, and is also apparently the gateway to the fifth dimension. He paused before admitting that although there is no proof, unlike the watertight grainy photos and first, second or sometimes third-hand testimonials for the UFOs, he does personally believe in it.

The mountain stands at just under 2,000m, so obviously it’s not Everest. At the departure point for the hike, on the outskirts of the town, street vendors offer stones with special ‘healing powers’ and dream catchers hang from the trees. This is not a place for philistines. Pay your $10 entry fee and leave your scepticism at the base of the mountain. Signs painted on the rock pointing upwards to the hill might as well say ‘Enlightenment lies this way, brave soldier, trek on’.

My hiking companion, a sprightly, energetic Argentine, actually confessed that he hadn’t wanted to bring his credit cards with him in case Uritorco’s ‘magnetic forces’ wiped all of his information. Cue lots of jokes about how the Erks were funding their earthly operations. And then an awkward silence in which everyone resolved to check their bank balance as soon as they got back down the mountain.

Despite the dreamy, hippy vibe, the climb isn’t in any way laidback. It’s still a hefty four-hour trek, though my companion had me bounding up the rocks rather impressively for the first hour or so. He lost me when it started getting a bit more difficult, preferring to clamber on ahead, thoughts of nirvana no doubt spurring him on.

He left me, bedamned ten-a-day smoker that I am, struggling up the rocks, falling over, and at one point getting so frustrated with the stupid path that I gave way to a furious hissy fit in which I pounded my walking stick on the ground and shouted rude words into the ether. A passing marathon runner advised me to ‘Have a rest, Señorita’. Ever the lady-like hiker, I responded, quite truthfully, that I was ‘quite all right; it’s just the path is pissing me off!’  

 

Photo by Olivia Keetch

The sierras themselves are jaw-dropping. And quiet… Every so often I would stop, catch my breath, promise ten-fold to quit smoking, and take in the view. I felt detoxed, fresh-aired, liberated, at one with nature, and very, very sweaty. Still no aliens though.

The summit is unassuming; a cross marks the highest point, festooned with bits of material, trinkets, a small shoe, a sleeping dog. I scanned the horizon for a good half an hour, double-checking every bird, every cloud: literally every flying object. Alas, I could identify every single one. So down we went, where I fell over some more, had another hissy fit, and got left behind again by my extremely keen Argentine hippy.

I once read an interview with Bill Bryson in which he commented that one of the best things about being a travel writer was that even if nothing happens, you can usually write something about it. With this in mind, I am slightly less disappointed that my strangest encounter in Córdoba was with a chivalric Peruvian businessman. Maybe the timing was wrong, maybe there was too much light and I wasn’t far enough into the wilderness. Maybe, oh just maybe, they don’t quite exist…

But I have an open mind. Ish. And I will always wonder when I look up into the sky at night, is the verdad really out there? As Suarez maintains, it is a bit ludicrous for human beings to believe we are alone in the cosmos. But, as he also mentions, the Earth itself is a ‘wonder’, so why do we need to look elsewhere?

Capilla del Monte, four hours from Córdoba city. See www.capilladelmonte.gov.ar for more information 

Centro de Informes Ovni (UFO Information Centre), Int. Cabus 237, Capilla Del Monte, 03548 482 485 or email cioluz@hotmail.com