A green mobility pilot project has been launched in Alicedale to help residents of the remote little town to get around while promoting eco-business and protecting the environment.
Funded by the EU and implemented by Nelson Mandela Bay’s uYilo eMobility Programme, the Living Lab project is regarded as a catalyst for sustainable growth in the picturesque but struggling dorp on the Bushman’s River.
The main role players and half a dozen other partners, together with members of the community, gathered under a marquee just off the main street for the happy event, and Phumla Gojela, whose counselling and training organisation CARE will be the primary beneficiary of the project, led everyone in song.
Gojela told the audience on Tuesday that the launch could be a turning point for the community.
“Development takes effort and it goes with accountability.
“This one is here for a lifetime. Let’s handle it with care.”
The project comprises a 6m shipping container housing three batteries, which store the solar energy captured by 52 photovoltaic panels fitted on the roof, and a plug-in system to transfer that energy overnight to two micro-electric vehicles.
The model was devised by the EU’s Smart Energy Solutions for Africa programme and is being duplicated in nine countries across the continent, including SA.
uYilo manager Edem Foli said the seven-year warranty on the “second life” lithium batteries had expired but they could still be used to store the energy from the solar panels and make it available on overcast days.
“Working together with the Green Solutions Academy, the aim is to make this containerised energy system a living laboratory where we introduce and measure the benefits of renewable energy to a remote community.”
She said the pilot project included two micro-electric vehicles — one for transporting goods and the other for ferrying passengers.
“We identified CARE as the primary recipient because of all the different community services they are already busy with including counselling for the abused, delivering medication to the elderly and the bedridden, caring for children, co-ordinating vegetable gardening, and collecting and delivering laundry.
“The micro-electric vehicles will help them and the community to move around much more efficiently and cost-effectively.”
Foli said while it might have been good to have bigger e-vehicles, the Smart Energy Solutions for Africa programme was geared around a model that could be sustained and grown by the community, and purchase and maintenance costs had been taken into account.
The project co-ordinators met the community on Wednesday to allow people to get a better grasp of other particular transport challenges which would help them guide the usage of the two micro-electric vehicles.
“The pilot project will run until September 2025, after which we will assess the data we have collected and use it to create a sustainable model for the future which will be completely owned by the community.”
Green Solar Academy project manager Brendan Reyneke said his organisation’s aim was to introduce solar energy to rural communities.
“I envisage that these two containers will become a hub for the provision of solar services and training.
“We will make different size charging systems available for households and businesses, and residents will be able to come in to use our Wi-Fi and to plug in their phones.
“At the same time, we will be running training courses to help locals get to a point where they can tender to repair the solar system at Shamwari, for instance.
“We want to show the community how solar works and how it can be used to create small business opportunities, mitigate costs and improve lives.”
Shamwari Conservation experience manager Cindy Stadler, who has worked with the Alicedale community for 10 years, was brought in to help introduce the project and identify the best people to do it through.
She said she worked with visiting overseas students and community members around practical jobs that benefited the environment and the community from clearing alien vegetation out of river beds to improving household rainwater harvesting systems, and she had high hopes for the project.
“It’s fresh and awesome and I envisage I could bring my tourists in here once a week and perhaps we could get a coffee shop and some recycling going as part of it as well.”
The land on which the Living Lab has been installed is being rented at a nominal rate from Barnard Mohair.
Louise Barnard, who has returned from London to take over the 60-year-old company from her parents, said she was excited about the project.
“It’s a brilliant concept. Alicedale is a very family orientated place and if one member of a family can learn how to install and maintain solar they can use those skills to form a business that can uplift many people,” she said.
HeraldLIVE
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