Challenges in Manufacture of Renewable Energy Equipment in Least Developed Countries - Case Study Wind Pumping in Uganda

摘要

Uganda is one of the least developed countries. It has high renewable energy potentials, which include hydro, biomass, solar and wind. So far the use of wind energy is very limited and the data on wind potential is still scanty. There are a few windmills used for water pumping but all were imported. Most of them fail after long use because of lack of maintenance, and lack of skilled manpower to maintain and operate the systems. Worldwide, wind pumping is a well-developed and proven technology. There is therefore need to locally develop manpower capacity in designing, manufacturing and maintaining such proven technologies for use especially, in remote rural areas in Uganda. An attempt was made by Department of Mechanical Engineering to construct a wind-pumping system but the performance was discouraging. Some hard lessons were learnt in design and co-operation with the small-scale industry. This paper addresses some of the teething problems and proposes possible solutions to overcome them.