Hydro and Geothermal

(can't get rid of the blue underlined text...)
A presentation by an Icelandic Company wanting to set up a geothermal electricity power station just north of the town on Karkar Island where volcanic activity is fairly quiet and they say they can provide twice as much energy as the community, the mines and the ‘Free Trade Zone’ are wanting and ,it seems at half the present price (the present power comes from a hydro electric plant probably 200 miles away). Only 2 problems remain – a legal agreement with the Government and coping with the hoards of people claiming an interest in the land being used for the plant and the transmission lines. Hard to see it happening but would surely be good.

As if to emphasize our electricity supply problems some nutter at the Yonki Hydro electric station managed to flood most of the control rooms leading to a 2-3 week half power with companies being begged to use their generators (and the coconut oil plant is able to run its generators on refined coconut oil).

Predictably (not that I did) the power supply was off the morning our digital mapping workshop started and we were only rescued by the IT boys fixing up the long defunct generator for the afternoon and the rest of the week. Thereafter the sessions went as planned apart from only half the expected participants turning up and we are going to have to practice the system regularly before we forget how to.

The trees along Modilon Road (the only access road into town), after I had contacted everyone I know, from the town’s anarchist blogger to a former Provincial Governor at last the Provincial Administrator announced that when he said all the tree were to be felled he was misunderstood and he really meant that all the trees should be inspected and if any tree was a danger to the public we should prune it carefully. Consequently I feel a sense of achievement at last and, as a bonus (if so it be ?) I still have a job.

To cap it all my team at the annual Country Women’s Association’s quiz night came top and we won a slap up dinner at the Lodge for next week !

Some happy trees

Karkar Island
Town centre shop