Solar in Haiti

Since May 16th 2010 I've been working for Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a US-based NGO, in Haiti.
With a team of American solar engineers we installed 3 PV systems at clinics and hospitals on the Plateau Central of Haiti, in the towns of Hinche and Cerca La Source. They were 2.7, 3.4 and 10 kWp in size, and will be working to relieve the burden of diesel generators.

Installation in progress on the 2.7 kWp and 3.4 kWp solar arrays at Hinche Hospital.

Cleaning and checking the batteries before wiring them up.

Jeff and Frantz working on the Outback centres.

On the roof of with the 10 kWp Cerca La Source Hospital arrays.

Fitting the inter-battery wires at Cerca La Source.

Arguably the most important activity of all: training the operators.

Cerca La Source array at sunrise.

10 kWp Cerca La Source array with the local church in the background.

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.

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

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).

Satawan school

Udot school

Moch church

Onoun municipal complex

A job well done! Onoun

Installation technicians - Satawan

28 kWp solar power plant on Fadrai, Ulith Atoll.

The largest of them all.

9° 54' 3.31" N  139° 39' 27.00" E 

More detailed information on this project:

Solar in Paradise - Article published in Renewable Energy World

EU FSM Solar project

Reducing the burden - Solar pumping in Melghat

Maitri is a Pune based NGO working with local communities in the remote Melghat region of Maharashtra state, close to the border with Madhya Pradesh.

In one of the villages, Ruipathar, the women had to carry all the water they need for running their household (except laundry) up the hill, usually 2 or 3 times a day.

Maitri first contacted AURORE in March 2008 to inquire about a solar pumping system for Ruipathar village in Melghat. Rishi went for an assessment to Melghat in April and subsequently Maitri managed to raise the funds to implement the project.


The solar pumping system was designed to pump water from a borewell some 50 m at the bottom of the hill to a tank right in the centre of the village.An Aurore India team, consisting of Rajesh, Manikandan, Nitin and Jos arrived in Melghat on July 10th, and immediately started the work.The villagers had already dug most of the long trench from the borewell to the tank.

The best location for the solar panels was agreed upon with the villagers and work the casting of the foundations for the manual trackers started.

On day 2 the HDPE water pipe was unrolled, connected to the submersible pump and lowered into the borehole.

On the final day of installation (day 3) the solar panels were mounted onto the trackers and wired up to supply DC current to the pump.

The pump was switched ON and water started to flow into the tank. You should have seen the faces of the villagers! :-)

We stayed on for another day to make sure the system was pumping fine and help the local plumber with putting in the distribution lines to the tap-stands.

At the end of the day the team could relax and prepare for their return to Auroville

After all the excitement of the past days village life returned to normal, with the exception that women carrying water on their heads up the hill will become more of a rarity in Raipathar village from now onwards.

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! :-)