Solar Power and Regenerative Agriculture in Burma

Earlier this year Solar Roots was invited to come to Kayamyo in western Sagaing Region to install a solar system at Emmanuel Orphanage Center. The Center was founded 3 years ago by Pastor Joel and he runs it with his wife and his parents. There are many orphaned kids up in the border area close to India and Joel hopes to be able to take in more and more as time goes on.Right now they are constrained by lack of funding. Previous to our arrival, the Orphanage depended on power supplied by a local generator, who charged $2 per month per light, for only 2 hours of service per day. Kayalmyo, being a remote border town, is not well supported by the central government, especially in the area of energy. There are no official gas stations and all fuel is sold on the black market from small roadside vendors. Since the government doesn't offer regular electricity supply, almost every second house has a solar system - the highest market penetration for solar I had ever seen in Burma. So it was a breeze to pick up the 300Watt panel, a great solar battery from India and all the parts we needed, including 18 LED lights, that fairly lit the place up.

I am still in Burma and the internet is too slow to upload photos, so to see some images and to read a Blog written by Hamish Lee, our New Zealand voluteer, place go to this link: http://leesmission.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your continued support,

Bruce