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Diminutive Dynamo
They swiftly erect a solid and simple cinderblock structure, and crown it with a high tin roof to safely house the shining, digitally operated generators and water desalinization units inside. (The waste heat energy from the generators is actually used to run the desalinization units.) Mounted on the wall outside, is the latest in rate collection—the pre-paid power meter. Islanders can have the power they need, precisely when they need it and pay only for what they want to use ahead of time. Rick Ector, founder and CEO of Tennessee Valley Infrastructure Group is in the habit of helping third-world nations, as well as wasteful power-hungry ones, find more efficient ways to develop and use energy resources. The former U.S. Navy Lieutenant, says his company has grown from one employee in 1998 to 11 in 2003. “We do installations for corporations like Florida Power & Light, or work directly with small countries such as Denmark,” says Ector. TVIG has completed projects in more than a half-dozen countries throughout the world, from Haiti to Uzbekistan. It provides affordable and renewable energy solutions by allying with some big names in energy and economic development. The dynamic company began in the late ‘90s by developing energy platforms providing a multitude of services, mostly powered by diesel energy, and portable enough so that they could be placed in remote locations where cable and pipelines were impossible to lay. The technology was first developed for and used on oilrigs. Now the company is involved in other types of energy production, such as the development of wind-diesel hybrid generation. Besides Honduras, a number of other Caribbean nations are currently investigating the possibilities, to determine whether or not the wind energy idea is practical for them. These include Dominica, and windblown Aruba, just twenty miles off the coast of Venezuela.
Ector’s company has grown and adapted to the needs of a variety of international clients. His crew includes an ex-Peace Corps volunteer, a Canadian engineer, a retired TVA manager, a Navy nuclear expert, a young wind energy engineer from North Carolina, a business development coordinator and a couple of accounting managers. “Our goal is to continue to develop new utilities and to broaden ownership of utilities, internationally,” emphasizes Ector. And he intends to do it in a deliberate way that will provide a profit and sustain the company. The company’s unique collection of skills and alternative resources, combined with the creative and less wasteful energy-on-demand approach make TVIG one of the most innovative companies of our time, empowering instead of exploiting.
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Here, goats pad along a dirt road in front of a ramshackle house, its missing siding exposing 20-year-old power transformers, scantly wired to power poles that zigzag out into a small village on this tropical island called Utila, in Honduras. Neighborhood children ramble through the unfenced property to their homes nearby. Here, energy costs three times what it does in your hometown, is available to people who have one-sixteenth the annual income earned in your town, and is delivered sporadically at best, due to an aging and inadequate energy system. This is where a small team of experts from Tennessee has made a difference, riding in to town—not on white horses, but quietly working with local officials and townspeople to arrange a process for upgrading the deteriorating “plant.” The plan they devise will serve basic needs efficiently and reliably for many years to come.
“How hard does the wind blow? How many turbines do you need to place in the area? These are questions that must be answered,” says Ector. When the questions have been answered, the installations begin. “We use self-erecting towers, where the elevators fit into the towers, you work your way up.”Printable Version | Email to a friend | Add to favorites | Larger font
