Provide electricity to 500 students in Belize

Dear Supporters! 

While our combined Phase 1_3 and Phase 2 systems continue to function well --- allowing us a near 50% savings over the last month (see attachments), Phase 4 has gotten off to a great start! The school will be constructing living quarters for visiting volunteers that want to stay long term and have specific skills, such as social work, special education, members of the clergy, etc. The living quarters will be a modest "home" of about 650 sq. feet. See the attachment which shows the floorplan. As part of this project, our friends at Baker Renewable Energy have offered to donate 3-4KW of panels, enough to fill the planned south facing roof. We will still need various peripherals and will need to include shipping and possibly import duties along w/ funds for technicians to do the installation. Hence, Phase 4 will focus on raising the monies needed to cover these costs. 

Secondly, the Public Utilities Commission has elected to "auction" off several Megawatts of existing and planned connected solar for inclusion in a new net-metering program. Our Belizean partners, SESB, have taken the lead for us in submitting our application which has now made it through the first steps. The next step is an official site visit. SESB has offered to be on-site when PUC officials come out to the school, to help explain how our system's connections to the grid comply with the (new) PUC standards. While we are not there yet, we are very hopeful that within the next six months, all of our existing and planned Phase 4 solar will be included in the new program. 

Thank you so very much  for your continued support and we look forward to following up with you as things evolve in Phase 4 and w/ the potential to officially be included in the PUC net-metering program. 

John 

• Floorplan: Home for visiting volunteer specialists (PDF)