Keeling Curve

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Wind Empowerment (WE) is a global association for the development of locally manufactured small wind turbines for sustainable rural electrification, focusing on remote areas of developing countries where people have no access to electricity. WE has presence on almost all continents, and represents more than 50 member organizations in more than 30 different countries, consisting of small wind turbine manufacturers, NGOs, universities, social enterprises, cooperatives, SMEs, research groups, training centers, as well as hundreds of individual participants. WE facilitates knowledge exchange, technology development and project implementation, with the goal of making small wind a sustainable solution for rural electrification.

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The WE association, through its vast membership base, is supporting and contributing to hundreds of projects around the world on diverse themes such as rural electrification, education & knowledge exchange, and research & development, which directly involve youth, people of color, climate-vulnerable committees, refugees, children and women, among other underrepresented groups in the climate movement. Through these projects, the WE association and its members aim to empower underrepresented local communities, with access to energy, education and knowledge, and thus make them an active part of the climate movement. Examples of such projects are: Comet-ME is an Israeli-Palestinian organization providing basic energy and clean water services to off-grid communities in the South Hebron Hills using environmentally and socially sustainable methods. It provides social and economic empowerment to some of the poorest and most marginalized rural communities in the occupied Palestinian Territories through the installation of wind and solar energy systems and the provision of clean water services. The Wind Aid Institute serves as an educational hub whose projects provide electricity to rural communities, utilizing wind energy to provide a clean and reliable source of electricity in remote locations. Students and professionals join from all over the world to work together with Wind Aid and design, build and install wind turbines from the Andes to the Peruvian desert coast. As a results, hundreds of Peruvian villagers have clean and reliable electricity to lead healthy and productive lives. The Tripalium network in France offers wind turbine construction courses to adults and youth, with more than 200 small wind turbines already manufactured. With dozens of courses per year and a self-published construction manual in French, the network empowers children, youth and adults with practical hands-on skills, and with an understanding of renewable energy and climate issues. Through their website, people operating a small wind turbine can register their systems, share their experiences and ask for others to help during a maintenance. KAPEG is a research organization in Nepal established by local engineers actively involved in renewable energy for rural electrification. It is an innovative organization continuously working on bringing new technologies to Nepal, which can assist the rural population to gain access to electricity and other basic requirements. The group is conducting research activities with the support of local industry and academia, and collaborate with the Alternative Energy Promotion Center, an independent government institution, on electrification projects and market assessments. 500RPM is a non-profit organization which promotes locally manufactured small wind turbines in Argentina while working with educational institutions, NGOs, companies and government agencies to enhance small wind‚ impact in the country. They conduct practical educational activities such as building small wind turbines in rural schools in the Patagonia region, and they also supplement off-grid rural electrification systems with small wind turbines for productive uses of energy, so as to enhance the agricultural production of small scale farmers and livestock producers. They research and develop locally manufactured wind-water pumping systems for supporting rural educational centers and cooperatives in remote regions with indigenous populations.

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21 Cutler‚ House

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Our online conference brought together members from across the world, with recordings made for YouTube that can be found here: https://windempowerment.com/webinars/weonline2020-paving-the-way-for-our-digital-community/. The Wind Empowerment YouTube Channel contains hundreds of hours worth of content, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqLOsS-h-TgrNb3MfekKrMA/videos with our first post over 6 years ago. Our website, http://www.windempowerment.com (or http://www.windempowerment.org), which we are working on redirecting to our .com address) enables interested parties to get involved, engage with educational content and resources, as well as containing links to our partners, some of which have been listed above. Other channels include Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WindEmpowerment/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/WindEmpowerment/, where we post regular updates and share content of a different nature, engaging with a wider audience and generating interest beyond technical circles. WE works extensively using online platforms, reflecting the open source philosophy of the organisation. A significant amount of engagement occurs on the Discord Platform https://discord.com/channels/716298097164025856/718021601311981599.