hydro power

Out on Bougainville island there is a lot of creative living going on. I was lucky to meet some cool locals in a guest house on Buka island the night before i was heading to Bougainville. Warren and his wife were also heading to Bougainville so they offered for me tag along. We went up to Pavaere village, in the hills north of Arawa town.

Warren's "home made" truck. Made out of three different Toyota trucks.

sharing the front seat with the car battery

Warren set up his own electricity for his village and two others. He calls it "hydro power." Made with a river, a generator, old septic pipes from arawa town, old power lines and a power box from town. The river is reverted so he could dig his PVC pipes into the ground. Being separate from the main river the pipe is safe from floods.

The pvc pipe then runs about 100 meters down hill to give the water some momentum. The water exits the pipe and spin sprays the turbine. The turbine turns the generator on the other side in the safe shed. no gas needed.

He connected the generator to the power box to give main power switches to each village.

Then the power cords are nailed up to trees and run back up to village.“Its just common sense” warren said. they had to be creative after the crisis, they didn’t have much support from anyone. As of now the generator powers 8 houses constantly 24 hours a day. A few lights in each house and a couple tvs in the village. Warren believes the generator has enough power for 20 twenty houses.