WhyNotSolar?: 2009

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Solar Streetlights in Eastern Chad

I'm in Eastern Chad at the moment, on the border with Sudan's Darfur province in the town of Iriba.
There are several refugee camps here and UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency) is providing humanitarian assistance here.

Iriba, Eastern Chad (15° 7' 37.51" N 22° 14' 46.08" E )

It's a semi-desert area here, and relatively cool since we're slightly elevated (around 1000 meters)

With money they got from the Dutch Postcode Lottery they have purchased 62 solar streetlights from NAPS Systems, and I'm here on behalf of NAPS to give training to local technicians to install these lights.

I gave a short introduction on solar PV before starting the day before yesterday, and after that we've been installing the first 6 solar lights in the town of Iriba.

Everything went smoothly, and the teams are doing well.
This is how the lights looked like at night:

Everybody is impressed and talking about it! The town is slowly transforming.

Monday we'll go to one of the nearby refugee camps (Iridimi) for a few more installations.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Zanskar 2009: another 2.4 kWp installed!

Lamdon Model High School (LMHS) solar array, Ufti

33° 28' 59.83" N 76° 53' 34.07" E

AURORE installed it's first solar panel in Zanskar in 2003 and in the subsequent years a total of 3.15 kWp has been installed on Zanskari school roofs (as well as one clinic).his year saw a dramatic increase after we added a whopping 2.4 kWp (kiloWatt peak) to that total.

SECPAD school hostel 900 Wp solar array

33° 31' 8.40" N 76° 53' 48.28" E

32 new 75 Wp solar panels were installed this year at the SECPAD school hostel in Karsha-Yulsum (12 no.) and at the Lamdon Model High School (LMHS) in Ufti (20 no.). LMHS increased its existing solar array from 450 Wp to 1950 Wp!

Lamdon Model High School solar array under assembly

The schools in Zanskar are starting to use more and more computers, for administration but also for educating the children and making them computer literate. Teachers are increasingly using DishTV satellite systems to keep informed (and entertained!) from the outside world. Satellite internet is the next logical step to bridging the digital divide in this remote mountain region.

Overview of all 3 LMHS solar arrays - 1950 Wp in total, the largest in Zanskar!

Fitting the solar array cable at SECPAD school hostel, a tricky operation

The SECPAD hostel battery room under construction

Another "first" this year was the installation of the first solar refrigerator at the Sani clinic. Sani received a 1 kWp solar system last year and is now the proud owner of a Phocos/Sundanzer 50 liter solar fridge. It intends to use it for vaccine storage.

The new Phocos/Sundanzer solar refrigerator at Sani Clinic (with Rainer and Jos)

33° 30' 32.34" N 76° 48' 33.11" E

An unexpected use of the Sani solar system was the running of a 1/2 HP water pump to faciliate the irrigation of the compound. The solar system was handling it easily.

Finally, we went back to Jamyang Ling school in Raru as well this year. This is where we installed our first solar system in 2003 in the school's hostel. The battery bank that was installed at the time was getting too small, and we replaced it with a larger one to accommodate the increased power demand.

The new Jamyang Ling school hostel battery bank, Raru

33° 19' 52.74" N 76° 57' 47.75" E

All in all a very fruitful 2009, and we are looking forward to returning to Ladakh in 2010 for some more solar work. There is a lot of interest in solar water heaters in the region.

Stay tuned!

See how climate change is affecting Ladakh

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Micronesia: Solar in Paradise

From November 2008 till June 2009 I was involved with the installation of 16 solar PV installations on the remote outer islands of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), funded under the EDF-9 project of the European Union (EU).

FSM is situated in the North Pacific, south of Guam, and its outer islands are some of the remotest places on earth.

The solar PV installations varied in size from 2.5 kWp (installed on health clinics) to 28 kWp (a mini-grid system powering the entire island of Fadrai).