Electricity in the Cayman Islands (and in most of the Caribbean) is very expensive.  Most islands do not have rivers to turn turbines or the critical mass (or the will) to have coal or nuclear generators.

Just a few weeks ago, a new promising technology was launched in Grand Cayman by our local utility, the Cayman Electric Company (CEC).

The company expects 60% of homes in Grand Cayman will use this technology by 2012.  Its not a new idea, but definitely a first on such a large scale. In a nutshell, its Pedal Power!  CEC will install a home power generator that can be connected to any regular bicycle.  According to the article I read in the local paper, the company estimates that “1h of cycling every day can reduce the average family’s bill by 30% and help ’em lose some weight at the same time”.

Here is a demo that was given last week by CEC at the George Town park by a local kid.  He was “plugged” into a specially designed electrical panel to show just how much electricity pedal power can generate.

riding_pedal_power_small-1

This is the gizmo that will be installed in homes (on the electrical box)  The company says that it will take less than 30 minutes for the technicians to “patch” it into the homes electric box.  Installation & all equipment costs 200CI (about 250$US) for the setup.

voodoolabpedalpower2plusbig

Being the eco-friendly people we are, we signed up immediately for the program.  Here I am testing it out with the portable generator & the cord to plug into the electrical grid.  Cant wait to see if next month’s bill will be lower.   Not bad at all. It can be moved from room to room. We are leaving it in the living room so that we can pedal & watch TV.

img_7453

All-in-all, a great step for Cayman power generation.  Honestly, if it is to save us lots of money, I may spend all of April fool’s day pedaling! 🙂