Global Sustainable Development Goal No 7

The Goals

UNA Central Region plan to support the 17 global sustainable development goals in any way we can. The new UNA team has been researching ways and means. An email received in July gave some insight into an extraordinary pioneering project in Patagonia, Chile.

The jubilant team of people celebrating the success of this pioneering project

The Project

Using wind energy and technical know-how, local teams in the town of Coihaique and the village of La Junta at the bottom tip of the Andes mountains, have completed three pilot projects. The team has been inspired to create and deliver the projects that have yielded electrical power to a community previously without such a resource. At the heart of the project are small wind turbines, made in North East of England, assembled and delivered by the people of Coihaique and La Junta. Local schools are involved as part of an educational curriculum. Goal No 7 to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” has been achieved and a compelling need satisfied. Many congratulations to Sr Donald Manquenahuel and his team for a major breakthrough with much potential for applications elsewhere in the world.

The local community:

Supporting the project from the concept stage, and Sr Manquenahuel’s team, has been a group of people from the North East of England led by Dr John David Simnett. On the 8th November, Sr Manquenahuel wrote to Dr Simnett, “We are very pleased you are continuing to improve the technologies that will allow us, in the near future, to help more people with problems of access to electricity”.

The two accompanying pictures show:

1. a small wind turbine generating electricity from a back garden and for the local community.

2. The jubilant team of people celebrating the success of this pioneering project

What can we do?

A small wind turbine generating electricity from a back garden and for the local community

Across our world, 1.2 billion people out of a population of 7.2 billion, are living in communities without electricity. Dr Simnett’s challenge to the UNA Central Region, and Branches within the Region, is how to transfer the project technology to other communities in a way that will sustain momentum behind energising communities without affordable and clean energy? A sustainable framework for the transfer of technology to places across the world. the UNA Central Region can offer already. A financial investment to underpin the leadership needed is a parallel resource of equal importance. Your ideas, suggestions and involvement will be most welcome.

Contact

Barrie Oxtoby, UNA Central Region, barrie.oxtoby@btinternet.com