Solar street lights and other street light solutions using advanced solar technology

Solar Power Brings Light back Haiti After the Striking Earthquake - Energy

In the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated his country on January 12, Infrastructure in Haiti was all in ruins. No electricity, no food, no water, Solar street lights were almost the only one that keeps normal operation as it has always been.

Before the earthquake, Haiti had one of the lowest rates of electricity access in the world, with only 12.5 percent of its population of nine million connected to the grid. Those who had money relied on small diesel fuel generators for electricity. The cost of diesel spiked after the earthquake, putting that form of power generation even further out of reach for most Haitians.

“Why saddle people with the variable costs and operating costs of diesel fuel?” asks Jigar Shah, chief executive of the Carbon War Room, the climate change advocacy organization founded by Virgin Atlantic billionaire Richard Branson. His group has calculated that solar and other small power systems could be installed throughout Haiti at a cost of $400 million, a fraction of the $11.5 billion in rebuilding funds that United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called for over the next decade.

Vijay Modi, an energy systems expert at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, which works to advance sustainable development, says that renewable can, indeed, play an immediate role in meeting the electricity needs of Haiti. But Haiti also has urgent energy needs for cooking, in addition to the street lighting and cell phone charging solutions that solar can provide.

When it comes to household cooking needs, Modi believes that in the short term, people would be more helped by distribution of kerosene or propane. In the longer term, he believes, there should be a focus on more sustainable land management practices to provide the wood and charcoal traditionally used for cooking in Haiti—fuels that can be renewable when well managed.

Renewable energy advocates working on the ground in Haiti agree that more efficient use of wood and charcoal will continue to be used in the short term for cooking, although bio char (charcoal from agricultural waste) could be a more environmentally friendly solution. They also worry about the use of kerosene for lighting in the short term for a reason more immediate than its impact on the climate—in addition to the harmful fumes; the fire hazard is acute in the tent camps where so many Haitians are now living.

As the solar installation does not require large-scale power supply network and does not need to consume a lot of resources to generate electricity either. Use of solar energy as an energy source of developing countries is an important means of keep power supplying in these country. The solar lamp is already quite mature a product; it is the best choice for developing countries.

Prev: Ideas for life: Solar Garden Lights DIY     Next: Solar outdoor lights