Education and Grid electricity can’t be taken for granted when you happen to live in one of the most sparsely populated countries on the planet. If you live in the rural part of any country ‘public services’ like education has a habit of passing you by; but in Botswana – with its half-a-million square kilometers of rural land – most of the country is ‘off grid’. The Government is making one of its biggest investments to make sure children don’t miss out on a modern education…The Ministry of Education and Skills has embarked on an ambitious project to provide 20 rural schools with state of the art off-grid Solar Power plants – each providing an impressive 90 to 150kVA. That’s enough for the School’s pupils, office block, kitchen and up to 10 associated ‘staff houses’. A micro-grid.
The government recognizes the importance of education and seeks to offer an equal opportunity to all Botswanan children -regardless of whether they grow up in the city – or remotely. No electricity means no computers – and without learning computer skills a child becomes part of a lost generation …unable to reach his/her full potential. For that reason the Government have signed off this initiative which represents one of their biggest, newest investments.
A long way from the cities, sophistication of these electronic installations is an unfamiliar sight – but no short-cuts have been made in guaranteeing the future of electricity provision, with state of the art power plants which may comprise of up to 12 Inverters 48V Quattro 10kVA; and BlueSolar 150/70 MPPTs. There’s no shortage of sun, of course, to fire-up the BlueSolar PV Panels in arrays of up to 47kWp which harvest the power into OPzV Batteries banks as large as 288kWh.
Now the very latest technology is available to these children as an educational tool. No matter that their school is far out of town, increasingly rural children can enjoy the same advantages as children in the cities.By taking a long-term view the power needs of remote schools, villages – even towns – can be met through installing Solar Powered Micro-Grids or going off-grid as some prefer to call it. The power used by these far-sighted schemes is cleaner; uses less infrastructure; is more easily maintained; and is more secure from acts of god …or civil unrest. Not only that, they have their costs under control …and the price they pay for their power, over the lifetime of the installation is a fraction of the price paid by those of us who are grid-connected.
Think about this: In the UK the average annual bill for electricity today is £600. The average annual electricity price-rise is 8%. In 25 years time (the lifetime of a solar panel) the average annual bill for electricity will be £4,100. The economic argument for generating your own electricity from Solar Power has been won – going off-grid is the way,it’s cheaper.In many ways – the Botswanan Government, and Botswanan schoolchildren are showing us the way ahead.
Justin Tyers
source: Victron Energy website

Financed mainly by charitable donations the surveillance installations are highly mobile, frequently moved, and can be packed for deployment by truck – or even slung under a helicopter and flown-in to new surveillance sites.
As the solar inverter industry is becoming more commodified every year, inverter spec sheets are starting to look a lot more similar. Many inverter capabilities are driven by the same market requests and NEC code regulations, making features and pricing very similar across all inverter brands in the market. Therefore, a buyer could think that the only thing to look at is the price tag. However, it’s crucial to actually look past the spec sheet and the initial purchase price. When picking an inverter, you not only chose a piece of equipment, you are choosing a partner to work with for the next 20+ years. Thus, you might want to look into more than just “the box” and its price.






GRADE refers to the quality of solar cell used in the solar panel, and are categorized as A, B, C, or D. “Grade A” cells are the highest quality, in that they are tested to ensure there are no micro-cracks in the solar cell, and all the cells are of the same type. The quality diminishes for grade B, which may have micro cracks and not all cells are of the same type (they sometimes mix and match). Grades C and D are much worse quality with larger cracks and chips, and the cell mismatch is even worse since typical solar cell will be exposed to sunlight throughout its lifetime. Sunlight contains harmful ultraviolet (UV) light that deteriorates all materials, including solar cells. The tiny flaws in the material become worse after prolonged exposure to sunlight, and its power output reduces over time.As a grade A cell has the least flaws to start with, its deterioration will be the slowest.
