Bringing Solar to Haitian Schools

• - 11月 19, 2014

In January 2010, a 7.0 Magnitude Quake struck near Port au Prince, Haiti. Over 3,500,000 people were affected by the quake; 220,000 people are estimated to have died and 300,000+ people were injured.

One and half million people became homeless and 19 million cubic metres of rubble and debris covered Port au Prince – enough to fill a line of shipping containers stretching end to end from London to Beirut. Four thousand schools were destroyed.

The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, recently completed the installation of new solar systems to power six primary schools and one junior high school in the Boucan Carré district of Haiti’s Central Plateau. Close to 2,000 students in the communities of Georges, Vyet, Bois-Joli, Pouillée, Pagès, Bellevue, and La Chaussée will now be able to attend schools with lights and computers powered by solar electricity.

Since 2010, over 75 kW of solar power has been installed at five health facilities, and the final installations are underway at the two remaining facilities in Petit Riviere and Verettes.  In 2014 SELF is working on the development of solar micro-grids to power entire towns in Haiti in conjunction with the IDB, UNEP and NRECA.

“According to SELF’s 2013 Annual Report 1.2 billion people live in energy poverty and access to electricity remains but a distant dream” said Marlene Moore, VP Marketing with Green Power Labs Inc. “Solar technologies is a sensible energy alternative in areas with limited or no grid access” Moore added and “ we applaud the collaborative work of international agencies, partnerships and not-for-profits whose mission is to assist those living in energy poverty with their economic, educational, health care and agricultural development through deployment of solar technologies.”

For more information of SELF visit http://self.org

Photo supplied by The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), non-profit.