Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Sustainable eco tourism….. That was the goal in Sept 2006 when the first tribe members stepped onto Vorovoro. Over the past 4 years the tribe members have helped with a number of different projects, all in the name of sustainability. One of the bigger projects has been to get a power source onto the island that is from a renewable source. Prior to the donation of the Wind/Solar unit by Eco-tricity in August 2007, there was no electrical power generation on Vorovoro, except for a small petrol unit operated by Poasa and family. The Eco-tricity Hut is home to our power house where we are able to charge our cameras, lap tops, mobile phones etc. It also has the switches to give our village sufficient lighting in the evenings. There are no power sources in the Bures or Vales, the Eco-tricity hut is the only place with power points.

Our renewable source is something we are not short of … sunlight and wind. What better way to get “free” power. Below are a few

stats that will show you the power that we can and have produced over the past 4 years since the solar panel and wind turbine were introduced. Even if you don’t understand or follow what the results are, it basically means we have reached a goal – Vorovoro has power that is renewable and eco-friendly and provides us with all that we need.

Stats: The current system is a combination of two 80W solar panels and a 400W wind turbine, both linked to four 200Ah, 6V deep cycle batteries wired series-parallel to power a 12V camp lighting/car outlet system and a 240V inverter. There is a separate charge controller connected to the solar panels and the wind turbine has an in built charge controller and is directly connected to the batteries. The meter on the solar charge controller does not take into account drains of power from the inverter. When spinning, it can be estimated that the wind turbine is producing around 150W of power. The solar panels operate best from 10am to 4pm and can produce an average of about 80W of power. So on an average day, if the wind turbine spins for 4 hours and the solar panels are generating power for 6 hours, the average daily total power generation would be about 1000Wh. The batteries can store a total of 4800Wh, so there is a generation to storage ratio of about 1:5, a good match, although the whole system could possibly run on two batteries just as well.

Tribewanted is working towards its goal day by day, the dream is alive and growing, the main needs are achievded, and all in the name of sustainability and being eco-friendly. You want to be a part of this adventure? Join us on Vorovoro for the full experience.