Solar Energy for Sherpa Museum Himalaya, Nepal
Donation protected
To start with….
Mountains are Islands: bringing sustainability to the top of the world
Mountains are magic places: they are of unique beauty and can’t be ‘owned’: mountains are universal gardens of humanity, that you can explore with sound preparation and often local people’s help. You will pass by and will not stay. You will leave for coming back. You will all your life remember the beauty of this wild world up there. You will dream to bring your children, and to make your souvenirs their dream of tomorrow.
Mountains are islands: they are remote places that you can find challenging to get to- take the Everest and the rather dangerous flight to Lukla, and from there on towards the basecamp, or Namche- they are islands on their own. They are the top floor of the world, at once.
Mountains are inhabited by people that have adapted to extreme conditions and are famous for their hospitality. Without them we would hardly be able to access this magic part of our common planet. A very small part of humanity is living in those places, providing support to the many that pass by.
And mountain ecosystems are decisive for the welfare of the plains: the water from the Himalayas, for example, supplies billions of people every day. Sadly, when it comes to sustainability, mountains are lagging behind today: the contrast could not be higher between the inflow of the many tourists, and the waste that remains, the unsustainable supply of energy through oil brought in plastic canisters tied to a yak.
While islands have shared that fate not long ago, they have received an increasing attention and we witness change, thanks to all these initiatives from IRENA, the EU, the UN etc.[1]
Not so for mountains: be it the highest mountain in Africa, the Kilimanjaro, where the millions of tourists throw their empty batteries on camp grounds, or the roaring diesel heated huts on the Fujiyama, or the Solukhumbu Valley – entry gate to the Everest. There is a lot of opportunity for action at limited cost. While we should expect Japan to handle Fujiyama’s sustainability, poor Nepal or poor Tanzania are less likely to deliver.
Sustainability in mountains is a low-cost opportunity
It is obvious that sustainability in mountains is a low hanging fruit: firstly, there is no need to attract attention to these places: they are famous already. Secondly, there are sufficiently many well-off mountaineers visiting places like Everest, Fuji, or Kilimanjaro: would they like to make a difference? The answer is certainly yes. Do they know how? The answer is most probably no. And as they leave after their visit, they lose sight of what they left behind: waste and pollution, and a mountain population that must cope with it.
The initiative starts with the Everest region…
Travelling to the region mountaineers are overwhelmed by the beauty of the Himalayas, but, once more, upset by the obvious lack of sustainability. Today there is no need to invent anything, but one should simply implement the solutions that have proven their case. Solar PV technology is THE no regret solution for off grid areas and remote and isolated places like islands or mountains. Its spectacular cost decline makes it a must choice. Therefore, this project wants to apply solar solutions to public buildings, public goods.
The non-solar time must be covered with batteries, that are included in solar system solutions today.
We want to take an engineering approach and start with a pilot for an initiative that then hopefully spills over to many other mountain regions, is taken up for public buildings and sees private investors copy the example for hotels, huts, farms... We need proof of concept and good will first. We don’t want to waste our time in events and paperwork, but we want to deliver. We will celebrate successful launch, once we have made it for the first pilot project at the Museum in the Everest, in 2020. It is the intention of those who support this project to see it amplify, to deliver steadily others, emphasizing the popular seven summits first. We believe that a label ‘sustainable mountains’ should be developed in parallel, allowing the hosting country to develop tourism even further and to protect their ‘universal garden’.
Call for Support
The Pilot Project: Solar and Storage for the Namche Bazar Everest Sherpa Culture Museum
The pilot project to start with is the Solukhumbu Valley Namche Bazar Sherpa Culture Museum[2], currently in redesign, and that should be equipped with solar panels and a solar battery. The website of the museum shares many impressions and photos by his founder Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa.
Why starting with the museum?
The unique and now expanded museum welcomes thousands of visitors a year – both from abroad and from the region- and preserves the precious Sherpa culture. Sherpas- wrongly taken synonymous for porters- are a people that inhabit the mountainous areas of the Himalayas. Today they number around 200,000. Foreigners who travel to the Himalayas do so in order to trek its trails or to summit its eight thousand-meter peaks, but they would hardly be able to do so without the invaluable aid of the intrepid Sherpa. The world of extreme climbers, a world fuelled by adrenaline as well as a sense of adventure, began with the first expeditions of the 1920’s and ends with the current and seriously unsustainable model.
The great heroes of the Twentieth Century were Sherpas and Westerners working together to overcome incredible heights, blinding storms, a challenging topography, long travel, heavy loads, and sophisticated logistics.
The cost of the installation
The cost for the equipment of the Museum with solar for electricity and warm water has been estimated by Gham Power Nepal[3], a local renewable energy company, at 10.000 EUR. This amount includes the installation of a 5KV capacity solar system including storage, maintenance over 2 years. The lifetime for this special material for Himalaya conditions is roundabout 20 years. Such an installation would save the museum a yearly electricity cost of 3000 EUR and would avoid burning diesel for power generation.
What would be next projects?
Once this project is successfully implemented, the three next in the area should follow:
The second should be to equip the Kunde Sherpa hospital in Khumjung, set up in 1966 by Sir Edmond Hillary who has first climbed the Everest with Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa friend: this hospital located in 4000 m altitude serves more than 8000 people a year from the region.[4]
Finally, the two schools in Namche bazar- the Shree Himalayan primary School- and Khumjung – the Shree Khumjung Secondary School- [5]should also be equipped with solar panels and storage for electricity and hot water supply.
The estimated cost for the hospital and the schools is roundabout the same as for the Museum: an amount of 30.000 EUR would suffice to bring sustainability to these three places, and to demonstrate to others that it works, for replication in other mountain areas.
The Reinhold Messner Foundation
Born in South Tyrol in 1944, Reinhold Messner has a track record of breaking with taboos – in rock climbing, on mountaineering expeditions, and crossing deserts and the Poles. For four decades he has built up a wealth of experience at the margins of the world that has enabled him to create a group of museums on the subject of the mountains. His foundation supports the local mountain communities for helping people help themselves. Preserving the culture of the Sherpa through the Mountain Museum in Namche Bazar forms part of his projects.
Please support the project through the
Messner Mountain Foundation
https://www.reinhold-messner.de/de/foundation/
HypoVereinsbank AG München
IBAN DE53 7002 0270 0658 7534 44,
Swift Code/BIC HYVED EMMXXX
Reference: Solar Mountains: Sherpa Museum
This is a non-profit initiative.
Any questions on the solar project can be addressed to [email redacted]
[1] See as an example https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Nov/A-Path-to-Prosperity-Renewable-Energy-for-Islands-3rd-Edition
[2] http://sherpa-culture.com.np/sherpa-culture-museum/
[3] https://ghampower.com/
[4] https://himalayantrust.org/health-and-hospitals/
[5] https://himalayantrust.org.np/khumjung-secondary-school/
Solar energy for Himalaya : Namche Bazar
for THE PUBLIC Mount Everest SHERPA MUSEUM
An opportunity for sustainability action 2020-2021:
MMF
Messner Mountain Foundation
Messner Mountain Foundation
in Trägerschaft der Bridges Nachlassmanagement GmbH
Oettingenstrasse 25, D-80538 München
Tel.: +49 89 242129 0 Fax: +49 89 242129 10
HypoVereinsbank AG, München
IBAN DE53 7002 0270 0658 7534 44
Swift Code/BIC HYVED EMMXXX
Stichwort: Solar Himalaya Namche Bazar
Project Contact:
Susanne Nies, Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa
Infos erhalten Sie über das Büro Reinhold Messner
c/o MMM Firmian – Sigmundskronerstr.53 – I-39100 Bozen
Tel. +39 0471 631265 Fax: +39 0471 633890
www.reinhold-messner.de
Reinhold Messner Mountain Foundation
https://www.reinhold-messner.de/de/foundation/
Contact for the project: Susanne Nies, [email redacted]
To start with….
Mountains are Islands: bringing sustainability to the top of the world
Mountains are magic places: they are of unique beauty and can’t be ‘owned’: mountains are universal gardens of humanity, that you can explore with sound preparation and often local people’s help. You will pass by and will not stay. You will leave for coming back. You will all your life remember the beauty of this wild world up there. You will dream to bring your children, and to make your souvenirs their dream of tomorrow.
Mountains are islands: they are remote places that you can find challenging to get to- take the Everest and the rather dangerous flight to Lukla, and from there on towards the basecamp, or Namche- they are islands on their own. They are the top floor of the world, at once.
Mountains are inhabited by people that have adapted to extreme conditions and are famous for their hospitality. Without them we would hardly be able to access this magic part of our common planet. A very small part of humanity is living in those places, providing support to the many that pass by.
And mountain ecosystems are decisive for the welfare of the plains: the water from the Himalayas, for example, supplies billions of people every day. Sadly, when it comes to sustainability, mountains are lagging behind today: the contrast could not be higher between the inflow of the many tourists, and the waste that remains, the unsustainable supply of energy through oil brought in plastic canisters tied to a yak.
While islands have shared that fate not long ago, they have received an increasing attention and we witness change, thanks to all these initiatives from IRENA, the EU, the UN etc.[1]
Not so for mountains: be it the highest mountain in Africa, the Kilimanjaro, where the millions of tourists throw their empty batteries on camp grounds, or the roaring diesel heated huts on the Fujiyama, or the Solukhumbu Valley – entry gate to the Everest. There is a lot of opportunity for action at limited cost. While we should expect Japan to handle Fujiyama’s sustainability, poor Nepal or poor Tanzania are less likely to deliver.
Sustainability in mountains is a low-cost opportunity
It is obvious that sustainability in mountains is a low hanging fruit: firstly, there is no need to attract attention to these places: they are famous already. Secondly, there are sufficiently many well-off mountaineers visiting places like Everest, Fuji, or Kilimanjaro: would they like to make a difference? The answer is certainly yes. Do they know how? The answer is most probably no. And as they leave after their visit, they lose sight of what they left behind: waste and pollution, and a mountain population that must cope with it.
The initiative starts with the Everest region…
Travelling to the region mountaineers are overwhelmed by the beauty of the Himalayas, but, once more, upset by the obvious lack of sustainability. Today there is no need to invent anything, but one should simply implement the solutions that have proven their case. Solar PV technology is THE no regret solution for off grid areas and remote and isolated places like islands or mountains. Its spectacular cost decline makes it a must choice. Therefore, this project wants to apply solar solutions to public buildings, public goods.
The non-solar time must be covered with batteries, that are included in solar system solutions today.
We want to take an engineering approach and start with a pilot for an initiative that then hopefully spills over to many other mountain regions, is taken up for public buildings and sees private investors copy the example for hotels, huts, farms... We need proof of concept and good will first. We don’t want to waste our time in events and paperwork, but we want to deliver. We will celebrate successful launch, once we have made it for the first pilot project at the Museum in the Everest, in 2020. It is the intention of those who support this project to see it amplify, to deliver steadily others, emphasizing the popular seven summits first. We believe that a label ‘sustainable mountains’ should be developed in parallel, allowing the hosting country to develop tourism even further and to protect their ‘universal garden’.
Call for Support
The Pilot Project: Solar and Storage for the Namche Bazar Everest Sherpa Culture Museum
The pilot project to start with is the Solukhumbu Valley Namche Bazar Sherpa Culture Museum[2], currently in redesign, and that should be equipped with solar panels and a solar battery. The website of the museum shares many impressions and photos by his founder Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa.
Why starting with the museum?
The unique and now expanded museum welcomes thousands of visitors a year – both from abroad and from the region- and preserves the precious Sherpa culture. Sherpas- wrongly taken synonymous for porters- are a people that inhabit the mountainous areas of the Himalayas. Today they number around 200,000. Foreigners who travel to the Himalayas do so in order to trek its trails or to summit its eight thousand-meter peaks, but they would hardly be able to do so without the invaluable aid of the intrepid Sherpa. The world of extreme climbers, a world fuelled by adrenaline as well as a sense of adventure, began with the first expeditions of the 1920’s and ends with the current and seriously unsustainable model.
The great heroes of the Twentieth Century were Sherpas and Westerners working together to overcome incredible heights, blinding storms, a challenging topography, long travel, heavy loads, and sophisticated logistics.
The cost of the installation
The cost for the equipment of the Museum with solar for electricity and warm water has been estimated by Gham Power Nepal[3], a local renewable energy company, at 10.000 EUR. This amount includes the installation of a 5KV capacity solar system including storage, maintenance over 2 years. The lifetime for this special material for Himalaya conditions is roundabout 20 years. Such an installation would save the museum a yearly electricity cost of 3000 EUR and would avoid burning diesel for power generation.
What would be next projects?
Once this project is successfully implemented, the three next in the area should follow:
The second should be to equip the Kunde Sherpa hospital in Khumjung, set up in 1966 by Sir Edmond Hillary who has first climbed the Everest with Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa friend: this hospital located in 4000 m altitude serves more than 8000 people a year from the region.[4]
Finally, the two schools in Namche bazar- the Shree Himalayan primary School- and Khumjung – the Shree Khumjung Secondary School- [5]should also be equipped with solar panels and storage for electricity and hot water supply.
The estimated cost for the hospital and the schools is roundabout the same as for the Museum: an amount of 30.000 EUR would suffice to bring sustainability to these three places, and to demonstrate to others that it works, for replication in other mountain areas.
The Reinhold Messner Foundation
Born in South Tyrol in 1944, Reinhold Messner has a track record of breaking with taboos – in rock climbing, on mountaineering expeditions, and crossing deserts and the Poles. For four decades he has built up a wealth of experience at the margins of the world that has enabled him to create a group of museums on the subject of the mountains. His foundation supports the local mountain communities for helping people help themselves. Preserving the culture of the Sherpa through the Mountain Museum in Namche Bazar forms part of his projects.
Please support the project through the
Messner Mountain Foundation
https://www.reinhold-messner.de/de/foundation/
HypoVereinsbank AG München
IBAN DE53 7002 0270 0658 7534 44,
Swift Code/BIC HYVED EMMXXX
Reference: Solar Mountains: Sherpa Museum
This is a non-profit initiative.
Any questions on the solar project can be addressed to [email redacted]
[1] See as an example https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Nov/A-Path-to-Prosperity-Renewable-Energy-for-Islands-3rd-Edition
[2] http://sherpa-culture.com.np/sherpa-culture-museum/
[3] https://ghampower.com/
[4] https://himalayantrust.org/health-and-hospitals/
[5] https://himalayantrust.org.np/khumjung-secondary-school/
Mountains are Islands: bringing sustainability to the top of the world
Mountains are magic places: they are of unique beauty and can’t be ‘owned’: mountains are universal gardens of humanity, that you can explore with sound preparation and often local people’s help. You will pass by and will not stay. You will leave for coming back. You will all your life remember the beauty of this wild world up there. You will dream to bring your children, and to make your souvenirs their dream of tomorrow.
Mountains are islands: they are remote places that you can find challenging to get to- take the Everest and the rather dangerous flight to Lukla, and from there on towards the basecamp, or Namche- they are islands on their own. They are the top floor of the world, at once.
Mountains are inhabited by people that have adapted to extreme conditions and are famous for their hospitality. Without them we would hardly be able to access this magic part of our common planet. A very small part of humanity is living in those places, providing support to the many that pass by.
And mountain ecosystems are decisive for the welfare of the plains: the water from the Himalayas, for example, supplies billions of people every day. Sadly, when it comes to sustainability, mountains are lagging behind today: the contrast could not be higher between the inflow of the many tourists, and the waste that remains, the unsustainable supply of energy through oil brought in plastic canisters tied to a yak.
While islands have shared that fate not long ago, they have received an increasing attention and we witness change, thanks to all these initiatives from IRENA, the EU, the UN etc.[1]
Not so for mountains: be it the highest mountain in Africa, the Kilimanjaro, where the millions of tourists throw their empty batteries on camp grounds, or the roaring diesel heated huts on the Fujiyama, or the Solukhumbu Valley – entry gate to the Everest. There is a lot of opportunity for action at limited cost. While we should expect Japan to handle Fujiyama’s sustainability, poor Nepal or poor Tanzania are less likely to deliver.
Sustainability in mountains is a low-cost opportunity
It is obvious that sustainability in mountains is a low hanging fruit: firstly, there is no need to attract attention to these places: they are famous already. Secondly, there are sufficiently many well-off mountaineers visiting places like Everest, Fuji, or Kilimanjaro: would they like to make a difference? The answer is certainly yes. Do they know how? The answer is most probably no. And as they leave after their visit, they lose sight of what they left behind: waste and pollution, and a mountain population that must cope with it.
The initiative starts with the Everest region…
Travelling to the region mountaineers are overwhelmed by the beauty of the Himalayas, but, once more, upset by the obvious lack of sustainability. Today there is no need to invent anything, but one should simply implement the solutions that have proven their case. Solar PV technology is THE no regret solution for off grid areas and remote and isolated places like islands or mountains. Its spectacular cost decline makes it a must choice. Therefore, this project wants to apply solar solutions to public buildings, public goods.
The non-solar time must be covered with batteries, that are included in solar system solutions today.
We want to take an engineering approach and start with a pilot for an initiative that then hopefully spills over to many other mountain regions, is taken up for public buildings and sees private investors copy the example for hotels, huts, farms... We need proof of concept and good will first. We don’t want to waste our time in events and paperwork, but we want to deliver. We will celebrate successful launch, once we have made it for the first pilot project at the Museum in the Everest, in 2020. It is the intention of those who support this project to see it amplify, to deliver steadily others, emphasizing the popular seven summits first. We believe that a label ‘sustainable mountains’ should be developed in parallel, allowing the hosting country to develop tourism even further and to protect their ‘universal garden’.
Call for Support
The Pilot Project: Solar and Storage for the Namche Bazar Everest Sherpa Culture Museum
The pilot project to start with is the Solukhumbu Valley Namche Bazar Sherpa Culture Museum[2], currently in redesign, and that should be equipped with solar panels and a solar battery. The website of the museum shares many impressions and photos by his founder Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa.
Why starting with the museum?
The unique and now expanded museum welcomes thousands of visitors a year – both from abroad and from the region- and preserves the precious Sherpa culture. Sherpas- wrongly taken synonymous for porters- are a people that inhabit the mountainous areas of the Himalayas. Today they number around 200,000. Foreigners who travel to the Himalayas do so in order to trek its trails or to summit its eight thousand-meter peaks, but they would hardly be able to do so without the invaluable aid of the intrepid Sherpa. The world of extreme climbers, a world fuelled by adrenaline as well as a sense of adventure, began with the first expeditions of the 1920’s and ends with the current and seriously unsustainable model.
The great heroes of the Twentieth Century were Sherpas and Westerners working together to overcome incredible heights, blinding storms, a challenging topography, long travel, heavy loads, and sophisticated logistics.
The cost of the installation
The cost for the equipment of the Museum with solar for electricity and warm water has been estimated by Gham Power Nepal[3], a local renewable energy company, at 10.000 EUR. This amount includes the installation of a 5KV capacity solar system including storage, maintenance over 2 years. The lifetime for this special material for Himalaya conditions is roundabout 20 years. Such an installation would save the museum a yearly electricity cost of 3000 EUR and would avoid burning diesel for power generation.
What would be next projects?
Once this project is successfully implemented, the three next in the area should follow:
The second should be to equip the Kunde Sherpa hospital in Khumjung, set up in 1966 by Sir Edmond Hillary who has first climbed the Everest with Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa friend: this hospital located in 4000 m altitude serves more than 8000 people a year from the region.[4]
Finally, the two schools in Namche bazar- the Shree Himalayan primary School- and Khumjung – the Shree Khumjung Secondary School- [5]should also be equipped with solar panels and storage for electricity and hot water supply.
The estimated cost for the hospital and the schools is roundabout the same as for the Museum: an amount of 30.000 EUR would suffice to bring sustainability to these three places, and to demonstrate to others that it works, for replication in other mountain areas.
The Reinhold Messner Foundation
Born in South Tyrol in 1944, Reinhold Messner has a track record of breaking with taboos – in rock climbing, on mountaineering expeditions, and crossing deserts and the Poles. For four decades he has built up a wealth of experience at the margins of the world that has enabled him to create a group of museums on the subject of the mountains. His foundation supports the local mountain communities for helping people help themselves. Preserving the culture of the Sherpa through the Mountain Museum in Namche Bazar forms part of his projects.
Please support the project through the
Messner Mountain Foundation
https://www.reinhold-messner.de/de/foundation/
HypoVereinsbank AG München
IBAN DE53 7002 0270 0658 7534 44,
Swift Code/BIC HYVED EMMXXX
Reference: Solar Mountains: Sherpa Museum
This is a non-profit initiative.
Any questions on the solar project can be addressed to [email redacted]
[1] See as an example https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Nov/A-Path-to-Prosperity-Renewable-Energy-for-Islands-3rd-Edition
[2] http://sherpa-culture.com.np/sherpa-culture-museum/
[3] https://ghampower.com/
[4] https://himalayantrust.org/health-and-hospitals/
[5] https://himalayantrust.org.np/khumjung-secondary-school/
Solar energy for Himalaya : Namche Bazar
for THE PUBLIC Mount Everest SHERPA MUSEUM
An opportunity for sustainability action 2020-2021:
MMF
Messner Mountain Foundation
Messner Mountain Foundation
in Trägerschaft der Bridges Nachlassmanagement GmbH
Oettingenstrasse 25, D-80538 München
Tel.: +49 89 242129 0 Fax: +49 89 242129 10
HypoVereinsbank AG, München
IBAN DE53 7002 0270 0658 7534 44
Swift Code/BIC HYVED EMMXXX
Stichwort: Solar Himalaya Namche Bazar
Project Contact:
Susanne Nies, Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa
Infos erhalten Sie über das Büro Reinhold Messner
c/o MMM Firmian – Sigmundskronerstr.53 – I-39100 Bozen
Tel. +39 0471 631265 Fax: +39 0471 633890
www.reinhold-messner.de
Reinhold Messner Mountain Foundation
https://www.reinhold-messner.de/de/foundation/
Contact for the project: Susanne Nies, [email redacted]
To start with….
Mountains are Islands: bringing sustainability to the top of the world
Mountains are magic places: they are of unique beauty and can’t be ‘owned’: mountains are universal gardens of humanity, that you can explore with sound preparation and often local people’s help. You will pass by and will not stay. You will leave for coming back. You will all your life remember the beauty of this wild world up there. You will dream to bring your children, and to make your souvenirs their dream of tomorrow.
Mountains are islands: they are remote places that you can find challenging to get to- take the Everest and the rather dangerous flight to Lukla, and from there on towards the basecamp, or Namche- they are islands on their own. They are the top floor of the world, at once.
Mountains are inhabited by people that have adapted to extreme conditions and are famous for their hospitality. Without them we would hardly be able to access this magic part of our common planet. A very small part of humanity is living in those places, providing support to the many that pass by.
And mountain ecosystems are decisive for the welfare of the plains: the water from the Himalayas, for example, supplies billions of people every day. Sadly, when it comes to sustainability, mountains are lagging behind today: the contrast could not be higher between the inflow of the many tourists, and the waste that remains, the unsustainable supply of energy through oil brought in plastic canisters tied to a yak.
While islands have shared that fate not long ago, they have received an increasing attention and we witness change, thanks to all these initiatives from IRENA, the EU, the UN etc.[1]
Not so for mountains: be it the highest mountain in Africa, the Kilimanjaro, where the millions of tourists throw their empty batteries on camp grounds, or the roaring diesel heated huts on the Fujiyama, or the Solukhumbu Valley – entry gate to the Everest. There is a lot of opportunity for action at limited cost. While we should expect Japan to handle Fujiyama’s sustainability, poor Nepal or poor Tanzania are less likely to deliver.
Sustainability in mountains is a low-cost opportunity
It is obvious that sustainability in mountains is a low hanging fruit: firstly, there is no need to attract attention to these places: they are famous already. Secondly, there are sufficiently many well-off mountaineers visiting places like Everest, Fuji, or Kilimanjaro: would they like to make a difference? The answer is certainly yes. Do they know how? The answer is most probably no. And as they leave after their visit, they lose sight of what they left behind: waste and pollution, and a mountain population that must cope with it.
The initiative starts with the Everest region…
Travelling to the region mountaineers are overwhelmed by the beauty of the Himalayas, but, once more, upset by the obvious lack of sustainability. Today there is no need to invent anything, but one should simply implement the solutions that have proven their case. Solar PV technology is THE no regret solution for off grid areas and remote and isolated places like islands or mountains. Its spectacular cost decline makes it a must choice. Therefore, this project wants to apply solar solutions to public buildings, public goods.
The non-solar time must be covered with batteries, that are included in solar system solutions today.
We want to take an engineering approach and start with a pilot for an initiative that then hopefully spills over to many other mountain regions, is taken up for public buildings and sees private investors copy the example for hotels, huts, farms... We need proof of concept and good will first. We don’t want to waste our time in events and paperwork, but we want to deliver. We will celebrate successful launch, once we have made it for the first pilot project at the Museum in the Everest, in 2020. It is the intention of those who support this project to see it amplify, to deliver steadily others, emphasizing the popular seven summits first. We believe that a label ‘sustainable mountains’ should be developed in parallel, allowing the hosting country to develop tourism even further and to protect their ‘universal garden’.
Call for Support
The Pilot Project: Solar and Storage for the Namche Bazar Everest Sherpa Culture Museum
The pilot project to start with is the Solukhumbu Valley Namche Bazar Sherpa Culture Museum[2], currently in redesign, and that should be equipped with solar panels and a solar battery. The website of the museum shares many impressions and photos by his founder Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa.
Why starting with the museum?
The unique and now expanded museum welcomes thousands of visitors a year – both from abroad and from the region- and preserves the precious Sherpa culture. Sherpas- wrongly taken synonymous for porters- are a people that inhabit the mountainous areas of the Himalayas. Today they number around 200,000. Foreigners who travel to the Himalayas do so in order to trek its trails or to summit its eight thousand-meter peaks, but they would hardly be able to do so without the invaluable aid of the intrepid Sherpa. The world of extreme climbers, a world fuelled by adrenaline as well as a sense of adventure, began with the first expeditions of the 1920’s and ends with the current and seriously unsustainable model.
The great heroes of the Twentieth Century were Sherpas and Westerners working together to overcome incredible heights, blinding storms, a challenging topography, long travel, heavy loads, and sophisticated logistics.
The cost of the installation
The cost for the equipment of the Museum with solar for electricity and warm water has been estimated by Gham Power Nepal[3], a local renewable energy company, at 10.000 EUR. This amount includes the installation of a 5KV capacity solar system including storage, maintenance over 2 years. The lifetime for this special material for Himalaya conditions is roundabout 20 years. Such an installation would save the museum a yearly electricity cost of 3000 EUR and would avoid burning diesel for power generation.
What would be next projects?
Once this project is successfully implemented, the three next in the area should follow:
The second should be to equip the Kunde Sherpa hospital in Khumjung, set up in 1966 by Sir Edmond Hillary who has first climbed the Everest with Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa friend: this hospital located in 4000 m altitude serves more than 8000 people a year from the region.[4]
Finally, the two schools in Namche bazar- the Shree Himalayan primary School- and Khumjung – the Shree Khumjung Secondary School- [5]should also be equipped with solar panels and storage for electricity and hot water supply.
The estimated cost for the hospital and the schools is roundabout the same as for the Museum: an amount of 30.000 EUR would suffice to bring sustainability to these three places, and to demonstrate to others that it works, for replication in other mountain areas.
The Reinhold Messner Foundation
Born in South Tyrol in 1944, Reinhold Messner has a track record of breaking with taboos – in rock climbing, on mountaineering expeditions, and crossing deserts and the Poles. For four decades he has built up a wealth of experience at the margins of the world that has enabled him to create a group of museums on the subject of the mountains. His foundation supports the local mountain communities for helping people help themselves. Preserving the culture of the Sherpa through the Mountain Museum in Namche Bazar forms part of his projects.
Please support the project through the
Messner Mountain Foundation
https://www.reinhold-messner.de/de/foundation/
HypoVereinsbank AG München
IBAN DE53 7002 0270 0658 7534 44,
Swift Code/BIC HYVED EMMXXX
Reference: Solar Mountains: Sherpa Museum
This is a non-profit initiative.
Any questions on the solar project can be addressed to [email redacted]
[1] See as an example https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Nov/A-Path-to-Prosperity-Renewable-Energy-for-Islands-3rd-Edition
[2] http://sherpa-culture.com.np/sherpa-culture-museum/
[3] https://ghampower.com/
[4] https://himalayantrust.org/health-and-hospitals/
[5] https://himalayantrust.org.np/khumjung-secondary-school/
Organizer
Susanne Nies
Organizer
Berlin, Berlin