A non-profit group called Brighten Haiti said it plans to begin installing PV systems on 109 schools in rural Haiti starting in 2022.
The Oregon-based group said that fewer than 35% of Haitian schools have access to electricity and so operate without lights, cooling fans, or computers.
In light of the 7.2 earthquake and tropical storm Grace which struck the country within days of each other in August, the need for rural, off-grid solar systems “has come into stark relief,” the group said. A PV system on a local school can provide electricity when an area is cut off by disaster.
The group takes donations of discarded but still useful solar modules and offers solar apprenticeships to provide both training and reduced-cost PV systems to schools. A 6 kW system can be installed for about $6,000, or around $1 per watt, installed.
Brighten Haiti said that U.S. solar companies have shipped nearly 4,000 PV modules to the country.
