Provide electricity to 500 students in Belize

Dear All,

Thanks to all of you in helping make our solar renewable project at Holy Cross Anglican Public School in Belize (HCAS) as effective as possible! For this quarter's report, I provide more of an intermediate, but important, update.

Although I have not made a site visit since early June, I'm pleased to report that our "next phase" expansion is officially underway. In the last couple of weeks, our solar energy provider, SESB, sent a crew to HCAS to begin work. During this visit, they removed the oldest, now obsolete, set of solar panels. These occupied roof space over the school office -- where parents come to register their children and meet with school staff. The removal was not only important for site-preparation reasons, but also because the roof had been leaking for nearly a year. Gratefully, the school can now proceed with these much needed roof repairs.

Secondly, the SESB team also relocated all of the "System 2" panels. "System 2" provides power to the classroom areas of the school, and the school kitchen/cafeteria. The SESB crew moved them to a larger, much sturdier/flatter roof area, while completing needed wiring extensions. The extensions also provide conduit for the planned addition of more solar panels there.

As with the roof above the office area, System 2's original roof was also deteriorating. The school can now replace this roof as well, preventing water from dripping into classroom space below.

Our expansion goal is to provide "as much solar as is possible," not solely for renewable energy reasons, but also to foster self-reliance. We believe we can reach a 70% offset, which will be huge for the school and its community.

With your help, we've now officially begun the expansion!  And, the school campus is now "site-ready" to install on the order of 50 new panels, pending finding the needed funds.

When I next visit in late January 2025, we hope to have attracted donations sufficient to sign an initial purchase contract. You all will be a most important part of raising those funds. We can't do it without you, we thank you, and invite you to spread the word!

Most sincerely,

John

Dear All,

Thanks to so many of you for your continued support of our solar project in Belize. As renewables become ever more needed... and as a meteorologist that understands the immense challenges that global warming presents to human society ... I am extremely grateful that solar is a primary priority at Holy Cross Anglican Public School in Belize (HCAS).

I just returned from a visit as part of a volunteer team. We worked on the front facing "porch" decking and also on the roofing for our New Community Center. (The Community Center is built on 8-foot above grade concrete pylons, due to increasing flood-waters in the rainy season and frequent tropical storms in the fall). But, the first day of my trip was occupied by my visit to our solar energy provider, SESB, located near the capital city of Belmopan. There, we met to develop plans to significantly increase our solar footprint at HCAS (picture 1).

Following the Monday visit, SESB sent an expert technician out to HCAS, which is located in the impoverished San Mateo community near San Pedro Belize. "Dee" came out on Wednesday. Myself, "Dee", and "Mr. Freddy" (the on-site carpenter extraordinaire) surveyed the entire existing system ( actually dubbed Systems 1 and 3 ), focusing on expandability (pictures 2,3, and 4). Following that survey, we then looked at the new Community Center (pictures 5 and 6). The goal is to provide "as much solar as is possible" for the entire campus, not solely for renewable energy reasons, but also to continue to assist the community in becoming fully self-reliant. Unfortunately, as far as we can see, the cost of purchasing energy from the grid remains too high for the school and community center to manage going forward.

Overall, our goal is to offset as much as 70% of what the electricity without solar would cost. (In our case, battery backup is just not financially feasible -- unless a very generous donor were to come forward).

Within a week of my return home, SESB provided initial quotes for the upgrades to the existing systems 1 and 3, and a separate quote for what we plan to install on the New Community Center.

These are very exciting times at Holy Cross. Not only are our dreams of providing a multipurpose meeting space being realized (it will be used for advocacy, social services, storm shelter, and more classroom space), but our dreams and needs for solar are growing with it. In fact, tropical countries are ideal locations for SRE. This is because they vary little in solar angle, which is guaranteed to be quasi-vertical (especially deep in the tropics), and even in the rainy season, more solar energy "leaks" through cloudy skies.

Hence, at this time and moving forward, your donations could not be more important. Please invite friends, colleagues, acquaintenances to consider this project as an important, though local, contributor to the fight against human induced climate change.

Most sincerely,

John