High on a
windmill, hidden amongst the
cherry orchards and the wheat fields of
Eastern
Czech Republic, is a painting of
a raven with a piece of bread in its mouth.
The prophet St. Elias the Tishbite was
kept alive by ravens feeding him bread
when he was hidden in the desert. This
is the St. Elias windmill and it belongs
to
the Pravoslavná Akademie Vilémov, a
non-profit Orthodox NGO specialized
in
renewable energy.
“Everything
was given to us by God to survive,’ says Roman Juriga, director of the
Akademie,
“that includes the energy and the capacity to create energy, that is
why we have
named our turbine St. Elias.”
Roman Juriga, is a devout member of the
Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
He grew up in communist
Czechoslovakia as an atheist as ordered by state decree.
Outspoken and
anti-communist, secretly he studied English, and secured entrance to an
international English school where he received a better education. Joining the
Orthodox
Church he was encouraged by leaders to attend University to study
theology.
He objected: the government knew he was anti-communist and if they
discovered him
studying, he would be thrown out. The Church offered their
protection. Luckily, just as
the authorities got wind of his studying, the 1989
Velvet Revolution happened and
communism in Czechoslovakia disintegrated.
After
successfully completing his education, Mr Juriga
established the Akademie, with
the support of the
church and Orthodox Monastery, in the little village of
Vilemov. Through small scale solar, wind, and hydro
power, the Akademie
educates kids and adults
about
renewable energy and climate change. The reaction has
been incredibly
positive from all groups, especially
the secondary school students. Many of
them say
that the information provided by the Akademie is
in complete disagreement with the information provided
to the schools by the Temelin Nuclear
Plant.
Members of
the Monastery and village are very proud
of the installations. Additionally,
several new solar
thermal installations that were inspired by the Akademie
have
sprung up in the community, an anomaly for this
area of the country. The Akademie
offers free
consultancy on renewable energy for other churches and
church-related
NGO’s. All this is made possible from the revenue from the 100kw
St. Elias turbine.
Mr. Juriga
has been instrumental in shining some light on the complicated world of clean
energy bureaucracy in the Czech Republic. The approval process for small energy
production is very difficult to navigate. Complicated submission procedures and
reams
of paper work protect the vested interests of fossil fuels, politicians
and corporations.
Mr. Juriga has become something of an expert in negotiating
the submissions process
and his successes have become examples and inspirations
for others across the
Czech Republic.
Wind energy
in the Czech Republic is lagging compared to Western Europe.
This is partially
due to propaganda by invested fossil fuel interests. However,
Mr. Juriga
recognizes that it is a natural progression for a church to move in the
direction of small-scale energy production and that it is essential to the
development of a post carbon world. He also believes that as the Czechs look to
Germany and see the rapid deployment of clean energy, the future will look
different in the Czech Republic.
This blog
post is part 1 of a series of wind energy stories from photographer
Robert van
Waarden. Next week meet Piet Willem Chevalier, Dutch mechanical
engineer,
bringing small-scale wind energy to Mali.
