Provide electricity to 500 students in Belize

Dear Supporters,

Thanks to one and all for your ongoing generosity as we continue to work toward energy independence at Holy Cross Anglican School in Belize. While efficiency in solar panel energy production varies with solar incidence angle as well as with amount of cloudiness and precipitation, in recent weeks our two existing systems have -- combined -- produced more than 50% of the energy demanded by school operations.

Furthermore, the schedule for installing our next array on the new housing (see pictures) for school professionals is coming into better focus. I will be making two site visits within the next 3 weeks, including a stop-over at Solar Energy Solutions Belize (SESB). SESB will be providing the array and installation services for the new housing. While we originally estimated that cost at about $15K, we now believe we can reduce that to about $12K as a result of better sizing of the array. Unfortunately, the BEL proposed grid-tied auction hasn't materialized, so, we are still in a position to balance what an array can produce versus the demand. By downsizing somewhat, we believe we will avoid sending much excess energy back to the grid, which is favorable for us. In terms of schedule, we are hoping to lock in an installation date somewhere in mid-April 2020, about the time we expect the new house to be ready for occupancy.

Closely related is improving our efficiency on the demand-side. We have completed a thorough survey of lighting requirements --- and there are many lights needed to keep a school with 500 students, staff, and faculty going on a day-to-day basis. Most of the current lighting was installed years ago by volunteers and is not efficient. Our survey suggests that we can save up to ~1KWH of demand by exchanging our lighting for LED's. With the cost of LED's coming down, we are now in a position to begin making a push to do this. I will provide a cost-estimate as soon as I have one.

Thanks again for all you continue to do to help support the ability to provide an education for 500 students that --- otherwise --- would not have a place to attend school.

Warm regards, John