Provide electricity to 500 students in Belize

Hello One and All,

It's been awhile since I've posted a report, but the reality is that over winter and into spring not much was accomplised at the school. Thankfully, Belize (like the US) is beginning a return toward normal life as tourism, which factors into about 50% of the Belizean economy, slowly returns. This means that -- I am happy to report -- I will be making a site visit in late July. This will include a full assessment of current status of our solar PV systems as well as looking ahead to plans for additional systems as the new multipurpose building construction gets under way. In addition, happily, we have learned that the (newly elected) Belizean government seems to be serious about allowing (grandfathering in) pre-existing grid-tied solar PV systems to receive true net-meters. While our ZGF units have been very successful, we have not realized the added benefit of being able to essentially be paid for sending additional power back onto the grid. Our registration for such a metering system has been filed and we now await a site visit by a Belizean official of the Public Utilities Commission.

That's about status for now as we look forward to our next site visit. As always, your support means everything in terms of our ability to develop the school in an environmentally responsible way while also reducing the day-to-day costs to operate. With such savings, we could not serve the approximately 450 children that attend, most of whom come from below-the-poverty line homes.

With gratitude,

John