Progress!

Last week we commissioned a 30m NRG meteorological tower on Massoud’s hill. I’ll post pictures later, they’re on a CD and I’m at a remote location right now. It was installed by a consultant from New Zealand with the assistance of some very professional engineers from the Afghan Department of Renewable Energy. The very existence of qualified Afghan engineers is a good sign for their country and hopefully they will be further involved in the rest of the project. Consultants, foreign armies and NGOs are a poor substitute for a functioning, competent government.

We’ve also finally gotten the project approved and it is now officially out for bid. If anyone is interested in a copy of the Scope of Work, drop me an email and I’ll send it along. Bids are due to Captain Nick Ashbaugh by 19Feb07 at 0900 Afghanistan time.

What does this mean? It means this project is officially underway. We’ve got $800,000 to build the first wind-farm in Afghanistan. It also means that I might see it built before I leave the country; which would be nice. It is our sincere hope that this project serves as an example that is replicated all over this very windy country.