Sani clinic, Zanskar, Ladakh

It was still relatively quiet in Ladakh when the AuroRE team headed up there this year for the installation of a 1,050 Wp solar PV system at a remote clinic in Zanskar valley in the second week of June.

Rishi, Hemant and Jos all met up in Delhi where a jeep was loaded with the solar panels, sealed maintenance-free batteries, the aluminium mounting structure and boxes with accessory cables, charge controller, inverter, etc.

This was the 6th consecutive year that Aurore was doing an installation in Ladakh, one of the most remote regions of India, high up in the Himalayas.



The 5 day journey in the jeep took us from Delhi via Manali, Leh and Kargil to our end-destination, Sani, 10 km from Padum, Zanskar valley's main town.

There Dr Rainer Lezius (Germany) has initiated a project to preserve traditional Ladakhi herbal medicine by building a small clinic-cum-community centre.

Raising funds through Fördervereins Sani Zanskar e.V. made it possible to build the small building, which was completed last year.
What was missing though was a reliable source of electrical power for lighting the rooms, as well as provide power for laptop computers and other small electrical devices.

Rainer contacted Aurore and a suitable solar PV system was designed and prepared in Auroville before being shipped to Sani village.

Nadeem, our 'local' electrician had already done the ground work in the previous days by fitting all the internal house-wiring in the building. This made it possible for us the complete to entire installation in a record 1.5 days and we commissioned the system on June 12th.



One of the monks of the local Sani monastery came to have a look and gave the solar panels his blessing! :-)

Zanskar 2007 - Lamdon Model High School

Rishi and Jos went up to Zanskar, Ladakh in July 2007 to install a 450 Wp hybrid solar-diesel installation at the Lamdon Model High School in Ufti, near Padum, the main settlement in the remote Zanskar valley.

The Drang Drung glacier, at the "gateway" to Zanskar

The drive alone, in a taxi from Delhi, took 5 long days: Delhi-Manali, Manali-Pang, Pang-Leh, Leh-Kargil and finally Kargil-Padum. All materials (solar panels, batteries, inverters and accessories were carried in the same taxi to the installation site.

All went well, and the school can now run its computers and printer on solar energy, as well as the lights (and a TV) in the teacher's quarters next to the school. Only in case of cloudy days and excessive usage will the diesel generator have to be switched on.

This is saving the school lots of fuel as well as cuts the noise pollution substantially.

Here are some pictures:

View from the roof of Lamdon Model High School, Ufti, Zanskar

Rishi in action on the 450 Wp solar array

and Jos working on the inverters in the "control" room

The locals seem unimpressed... :-)

The system was funded by Aide au Zanskar (AaZ), from France.
New projects seem to be already in the pipeline for next year, so hopefully we'll be back in Zanskar in 2008!

Mandhoo Island - The Maldives

Arriving at Mandhoo island

3° 42' 0.72" N  72° 42' 33.60" E 

On December 21st 2005 I flew to Male, the capital of the Maldives to supervise the installation of the first PV-diesel hybrid installation on Mandhoo Island.

There were 2 existing diesel generators on the island, to which the new 12.8 kWp solar PV installation had to be added.
The PV modules were to be installed on top of a metal structure, spanning one of the roads on the island.

Elevated structure, prior to fixing the PV modules

The installation took 10 days to complete with a team of 6 people.

And this is how it looked in the end from the top.

More background information on this project:

Paper

Poster

SMILES project

AURORE in Ladakh

In the summer of 2005 again one of Aurore's teammembers went up to Ladakh.
The Jamyang Ling school in Reru and Loter Gatsel school in Thangseo were re-visited.

At Jamyang Ling school 4 new solar panels were added to the already existing solar PV plants, situated on the hostel and the teacher's quarters.
Solar is definitely having an positive impact here on the quality of life of the schoolkids!

Previously, in 2002, Jos was seconded to the Tata BP solar office in Leh, Ladakh, to manage a LREDA (Ladakh Renewable Energy Development Agency) project.

Read more about this project here.

Pumping in the Punjab

Between 2001 and 2003 AURORE installed nearly 600 solar pumping systems in the Punjab, North India. Each pumping system has 1800 Wp of solar PV modules mounted on trackers, driving a 2 HP centrifugal surface pump.