Solar Villa888 in Phuket, Thailand

On the 30th of Sept 2011 I drove down from Bangkok with a team of technicians from Annex Power to install a 20 kWp rooftop PV system on a luxury villa in Phuket, Thailand.
The owner wanted to make a statement and make the villa 'eco-neutral'.

We had designed a simple custom-made aluminium mounting structure to keep the profile as low as possible, in order keep visibility of the PV modules to a minimum.

The system is grid-connected through 2 SMA Tripower 3-phase inverters, each 12 kW.

Due to rain the installation took 2 days longer than expected, but after 8 days the system went online and started producing solar power.

On the very first day the system produced 100 kWh and made the kWh meter of the house run backwards!

Thailand MegaWatts

I worked from June 2011 until Feb 2012 on 3 different MegaWatt (MW) solar powerplants in Thailand for Annex Power Ltd.

Due to severe flooding, the work on 2 of these plants (Sai Yoi - 3 MW and Sai Prapa - 7.25 MW) was severely delayed for many months. The 3rd powerplant, Indorama, which had been commissioned in July 2011 was completely inundated by floodwaters 6 weeks after commissioning and a virtual write-of.

This is the 2.37 MW Indorama solar plant, commissioned in July 2011, before it got flooded.

Piling at Sai Yoi (3 MW) started in late August 2011.

Since it was the rainy season, the soil was already pretty boggy and made operations difficult.

Teams started mounting the PV module support structures by mid-September 2011 at Sai Yoi.

  

and the first Conergy 225 Wp modules were mounted a week later.

Meanwhile, the flooding situation got worse and both Sai Yoi and Sai Prapa were under serious risk of inundation.

This is the waterlevel just outside the perimeter wall around Sai Yoi.

The only way to reach Sai Yoi and Sai Prapa was by boat. We constructed a raft to bring in solar modules to the site to keep the work going.

Indorama solar plant at Lopburi got completely inundated under 2 meters of floodwater and the solar modules completely disappeared under water. This pictures was taken on Nov 1st, when the panels slowly stared emerging from the water again.

The floodwaters left a thick later of mud on the PV modules.

  

Sai Yoi and Sai Prapa were eventually completed by April 2012, some 6 months behind schedule.

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