ROCAP

The Agency for International Development (AID) started out to be an arm of the State Department. It has served many purposes throughout the world, including that of a pacifier.

My experience with AID is confined to Central and South America. In Peru some of my Peace Corps volunteers worked hand and glove with AID and/or World Bank, or Inter-American Bank funded projects. Specifically organizing the people to work through Cooperatives in bringing services to the people. Two successful projects were the Rural Electric Cooperative in the Valle del Mantaro, which eventually provided electricity to 400 villages in the Andes and Artesanias del Peru which provided a means for the villagers to market their one of kind arts and crafts to the world. We organized various Credit Unions for teachers and others. Our biggest failure was in organizing a Fishing Cooperative.

In Central America I served as the Science and Technology Advisor for all of the five Central American countries from September 1979 to November 1981 with the Regional Office of Central Amerian Projects (ROCAP) headquartered in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Scenes In Guatemala

Giving Advise To Ing° Dardon                          At Escuintla Bio-Gas Plant

That is me with the Cowboy hat and my back to the camera!
I was BMoC Then - They called me "El Doctor Ing°"

Un Granito de Arena

The United States of North America, Western Europe, Japan and several other countries are continuosly faced with an energy shortage due largely to an imbalance of energy consumption over fossil energy production. This problem was dramatized in October 1973 during the Arab embargo and the resultant large increases in the price of crude oil. The shortage in energy supply was then termed the "energy crisis." Perhaps you remember the long lines at the gas pumps! It was a clear demonstration of this nation's dependence on imported petroleum and its vulnerability on both political and economic grounds. It is clear that the above problems would worsen in the future unless more attention and effort were directed toward increasing domestic energy production from both depletable and non-depletable sources and reducing energy consumption. It is clear today that we have not learned the lesson of 1973. This is the challenge that faced our country in the mid-70s and again today.

When I retired from the DOE in May of 1979, I wanted to do something about it. I wound up adding "my little grain of sand" to the solution of the problem.

Let me explain. Shortly after I retired from the Department of Energy, I started reading up on the "non-depletable sources" of energy and I applied for, and received a grant from the DOE, administered by Office of Energy and Minerals, State of New Mexico. I personally built a small biogas plant on property I owned in Peñasco, NM. The concept of the plant was patterned after Indian Appropriate Technology that I had encountered in the literature. My little plant produced gas! Methane gas, natural gas or "swamp gas", some people call it. We even modified a carburetor and ran a Ford V-8 engine on methane gas. Because of my demonstration project I got some notoriety and I wound up being invited to become the Science and Technology Advisor for the Regional Office of Central American Projects headquartered in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I spent two years in Guatemala; the two best years of my life.

Two questions may arise. What is "Appropriate Technology" and does it apply only to under-developed economies? Both answers are tricky. Appropriate Technology was popularized as a result of the OPEC embargo but was actually a common term among international developers. It results from a systems approach to solutions to problems. The technology, i.e. the tool used, must be appropriate to the environment in which it is applied.

In other words all of the sub-systems; social, political, economic or cultural; that interact, must be in symphony, i.e. symbiotic, for the solution to work. The concept applies in all societies or organizations. We find symbiotic relationships in even the most sophisticated of these and success is attributed to a good fit, that is to "appropriate technology."

In the short-term, perhaps until the year 2000, coal and nuclear energy are expected to play dominant roles in meeting the energy shortage despite he environmental restrictions that hamper the production and consumption of high-sulfur coal and similar difficulties (siting and radioactive waste disposal) that have slowed the development of nuclear energy. In the long-term, beyond the year 2000, it is imperative that all forms of renewable energy be developed. These include solar energy, in such forms as wind, ocean thermal gradients, and biomass; geothermal energy; and fusion. A major problem with several of the renewable energy sources is that they are intermittent and their energy density is low; thus, there is a need for an energy carrier that can act as both a storage and transportation medium to connect the energy source to the energy consumer. Many of the renewable energy forms, together with coal and fission exhibit their energy in the form of heat release.

It is necessary to develop an energy carrier, other than electricity, to supply the transportation sector as well as overcome the problems of electrical storage.

In September of 1979 I accepted a contract with the Agency for International Development as Science and Technology Advisor and functioned out of the Regional Office for Central American Projects in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

My responsibility was to advise all of the five Central American Governments on all aspects of development and production of renewable energy sources. Our greatest success was with bio-mass and geo-thermal plants. I introduced the Indian model which was the basis of the demonstration project I had done in Peñasco and assisted individual families in Guatemala and Honduras in building plants that produced enough energy to provide for cooking and water heating for health purposes.

One large size plant was eventually built on a diary farm in Escuintla, Guatemala which provided the energy needs for operating the entire dairy. These were all bio-mass plants utilizing cow manure to provide methane (natural) gas. Our significant geo-thermal success was in El Salvador where we converted hot underwater streams to power plants and generated enough electricity to light a community of 2000 people.. We also had a wind mill demonstration project in Quetzaltenango province but I left the project in 1981 and never got to evaluate the results. The plan was to provide electricity for small communities in the mountainous areas of Guatemala.

While all of these projects were small, and represented merely, "a grain of sand" in terms of what is needed to supply the energy needs of the people of Central America, it is my belief that what we accomplished was to plant the seed of the idea among the indigenous peoples in the region.

However, I also worked with regional organizations such as ICAITI and CATIE. In that endeavor I brought scientists from Los Alamos Laboratory and we introduced the concept of a Hydrogen Economy to leaders in Central American Industry and Agriculture.

Here is a summary of what that involves: Hydrogen, the lightest element, has been suggested as the energy carrier of the future. In itself, it is not a primary energy source but rather serves as a medium through which a primary energy source (such as nuclear or solar energy) can be stored, transmitted, and utilized to fulfill our energy needs. There are several distinct advantages to the use of hydrogen as an energy medium. It can be made from water, an in-exhaustible resource. On combustion, water is the main product; thus, hydrogen can be regarded as a clean, non-polluting fuel. Indications from current research efforts, suggest that hydrogen may be produced from high-temperature heat sources at an efficiency greater than that of electrical generation, thereby making hydrogen a more economical energy source than electricity. Technology has already been developed for storing hydrogen as a pressurized gas, a cryogenic liquid, or in the form a metal hydride. Systems for transporting hydrogen as a gas or a liquid have been developed with liquid hydrogen playing a major part in NASA's putting a man on the moon.

Finally, hydrogen is of value as a chemical intermediate, being used in fertilizer manufacture, methanol synthesis, and petroleum treatment.

We discussed recent developments in the science and technology of hydrogen production; hydrogen transmission and storage; hydrogen utilization; and the social, legal, political, environmental, and economic implications of hydrogen's adoption as a an energy medium.

We not only provided this information in a "seminar" but I also made sure that the Libraries of Guatemala City, ICAITI and CATIE got a complete set of the books published by CRC Press entitled "HYDROGEN: ITS TECHNOLOGY and IMPLICATIONS."

They also got copies of my booklet on "TECNOLOGIA APROPIADA: PLANTAS DE BIO-GAS DE PEQUEÑA ESCALA. Un estudio de Transferencia de Tecnologia de India, un Pais Sub-desarrollado, para los Estados Unidos de Norte America, un Estado Post-Industrial, con adaptaciones para Centro y Sud-America."

Lastly, from 25 to 27 March 1981 we held a "Conferenecia Centro-Americana Sobre Energia y Desarrollo" in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

We had representatives of all the development organizations such as AID, BID, BIRF, CEPAL, OEA, SIECA, BCIE, and PNUD as well as the five countries.

We were spreading the word. Unfortunately the Reagan administration put the quietus on all our alternative energy efforts. They were more interested in using AID as a pacification tool.

Pacification there is that term again.- The "Atole con el dedo" approach! Give the natives a little handout in a manner that they fignt among themselves and the real enemy; such as the United Fruit Company and he like.

Danger of living in Guate and also best years of my life.

Just Continuing to Tear Down Walls and break down ceilings!

Read On! Enjoy!