Solar Power and Regenerative Agriculture in Burma

After several years of concentrating on Burma, I have decided to spread my wings, literally and figuratively, and to visit some countries that I have never been to. First on the list is Ethiopia, where I have a long-lost friend that I just recently got back in contact with.

Y. and I were best friends in Yemen, but we lost touch for forty years until the marvels of social media brought us together again. Since I was heading back to Asia for my usual six month trip, I decided to fly eastwards and stop in Ethiopia for a month to visit Y. and checkout the possibilities for Solar Root work .

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with 109 million people, who are divided into over 80 ethno-linguistic groups. It is also the largest land-locked country in the world. As I quickly found out, Ethiopia is a land of superlatives!

I was very curious to see what was the status of solar in Ethiopia, a country without a port and so far from China. In Burma, you see solar panels everywhere in the countryside, but not in Ethiopia. As we drove for the 2 days between Addis Ababa, the capital, to Bahir Dar, the second largest town, I did not see a single PV panel. I had to assume that solar equipment was just too expensive and beyond the budget of most farmers. Like Burma, about 80% of the population lives in the countryside, without access to electricity, practicing subsistence farming. Although there are few Solar Home Systems, (consisting of one PV panel, one battery and associated electronics), in Ethiopia, many villagers have small solar lanterns, costing about $20 or so.

So, how could Solar Roots help out in the solar field? Well luckily, I got back in touch with Dr T, who has been coming to Ethiopia for some years, to teach in the medical field and who also supports a school building project, about 3 hours from Addis. He asked if Solar Roots could provide and install solar systems for remote schools and of course, the answer was “Yes”. We don’t have enough funds to provide every part of a functioning system and I believe it is important that the benefiting community and/or participating organization should make a contribution in cash or in kind, to complete the system. So, I worked out a plan where Solar Roots would provide and install all the solar components and the local community would provide the panel mounting structure and the 220V wiring downstream of the inverter.

Interestingly, while we were in Bahir Dar, we made contact with the School Bureau of the Amhara Region and were able to visit a remote school where a solar system would be very useful. Here, they already use a computer and printer for administration, powered by an old generator, and they have 10 desktop computers for students, stuck away in storage. The solar system design I envisage, (1,800Watts of PV), would handle the majority of this load and cost Solar Roots about $2,500 to purchase in the local market. I checked out the prices and quality of locally available solar components and was pleasantly surprised. A company from the United Arab Emirates called Copex Solar, imports Chinese components under their own brand and I found deep cycle batteries made by a reputable Chinese manufacturer. This was a big improvement over the situation in Burma, where the quality of the no-name PV panels can be very low and car starting batteries are the only ones available in most places. So, it looks good for Solar Roots to return in late 2020 to undertake some solar system on schools. These would be demonstration systems that would show the viability and reliability of solar in far-flung areas. Hopefully, with those as examples, funds could be raise to roll out a much more expansive program, reaching more and more remote communities.

If you are inspired by the prospect of Solar Roots opening up a new front in Ethiopia, please consider making another donation through GlobalGiving.

Wishing everyone a peaceful and prosperous New Year for 2020.

Bruce