10 solar panels installed at CDV

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

On Sunday-Monday (10-11 April) ten solar panels were installed at the Children's Development Village (orphanage). The project was sponsored by the Leitl family (Rudolf Leitl and Astrid Fischer-Leitl) from Germany and Chance für Kinder in Kambodscha. The same family is also sponsoring two of the seven houses, and their daughter Patricia has contributed to the orphanage by her voluntary work.

The total cost of the project is $8,040. Solar panels will enable the usage of 4,325Wh per day. They will be used for the light bulbs, one laptop computer, and also for the water pump. Previously, the light was available only for two hours in the evenings. The rest of the evening time had to be spent in the light of the oil lamps.

The use of solar energy has many advantages: it has the highest power density among renewable energies; it is pollution-free during use; PV installations can operate for many years with little maintenance or intervention after their initial set-up. The three leading countries in the usage of solar energy are Germany, Japan and the US.

In Cambodia, there are an average of 2,490 hours of sunlight per year with an average of 6.8 hours of sunlight per day. By 2020, REF - a World Bank supported public institution - is planning to provide rural Cambodian households, which are not yet connected to the national grid, with 12,000 sets of solar energy panels on a monthly payment basis.