Thank you from all at SolarAid for your support.

With funding from the Global Cool Foundation we have recruited a Country Business Manager, Trevor Robson to lead our operations in Zambia. He joins a successful team who have installed over nine solar systems in the last year.

Over the last few weeks, Trevor has been travelling to south western Zambia identifying possible areas that are well-suited to setting up solar projects. Trevor has also been revisiting sites in the Choma region where we have previously installed macro-solar panels on schools and skills centre. All of the installations are fully-functional and servicing the respective communities very well.

In SolarAid’s experience, identification of the right community and school is critical to the success of a macro solar project. The SolarAid team carried out an assessment in the village of Mulungwe which is situated in the Bulungi Hills - a particularly rural, but beautiful part of the world. Here we visited the local school which was built back when England were celebrating football glory in the old Wembley stadium in the 60s and met with members of the local community. Everyone was excited at the prospect of the school receiving a solar installation and they discussed how it would bring benefits such as lights for evening classes and lesson preparation, income generation activities through setting up a phone charging station and also the possibility of running a computer and television which could be used for education, entertainment and again as a way of generating an income which can be used to maintain the system. They also visited Fiwila and the Fiwila Development Trust, a local NGO which was set up to serve the local community. Here we witnessed a lively debate about the area's energy needs and where they, as a community, would like to see solar installation. The results of this discussion were this:

'Our local clinic already has a solar system for some lights and a refrigerator, although ideally we would like a bigger, more powerful, system there. Our local school would also really benefit from a lighting system - as we all would in our homes. If a system in installed at the Fiwila Development Trust Facilities, however, we can use this system to generate an income and save so that we can pay for a school system and perhaps an upgraded clinic system in the future.'

This line of thinking is completely in line with SolarAid’s commitment to creating independent and sustainable community energy systems. Macrosolar systems can be introduced as part of a 'solar challenge' which involves setting income-generation targets which can be used to meet 'solar expansion targets,' thus starting solar energy revolutions in each community.

Thank you to all who have supported this project. We'll do all we can at SolarAid to help the people of Fiwila and elsewhere realise these dreams. Any donations we get from people like you, who are reading this blog and interested in helping, will get us closer to realising those dreams.

Please let us know what you think of this update by providing feedback on our comments section!