For thousands of years, individual, family and community effort "powered" the life and economy of Kanaka. Fire (through burning of wood) provided, light, heat and allowed the community to make tools, art and live.
With electricity having been introduced, many families are now dependent on a new "energy" source and it is not free. It is this dependency that has fueled the desire to explore how we can collectively "power" ourselves that has led Kanaka to explore hydro, wind and solar energy solutions. We still do the effort and we collectively reap the benefits as a result.
All Kanaka's energy self-sufficiency initiatives at Kanaka Bar fall under four focus areas:
(more information is in the links down below)
Energy and electricity are a key factor in all four of these areas, and a big part of our everyday lives. We are constantly using energy, in a variety of forms and for the most part don't even think about it. However, it is important to understand something we rely so heavily on and that we can't take for granted..
Energy is measured in kWh. This is a measure of how fast something uses electricity in kilowatts (kW) over a period of time in hours (h). Below are some helpful visualizations of what exactly a kilowatt hour looks like.
The following actions generally require 1 kWh:
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1 MWh is approximately the amount of electricity used by 330 homes for 1 hour