Haiti's Solar Microgrid

Kiva lenders helped bring electricity to 400 homes in rural Haiti.

By Tim Chambers

July 25^th, 2015

EarthSpark Solar Microgrid

Les Anglais, Haiti

One of the most interesting—and difficult—portions of our fellowship was spent in the small town of Les Anglais, on the southwest coast of Haiti. Getting to Les Anglais was the first challenge—the closest major town is Les Cayes, a six-to-eight-hour bus trip from Port-au-Prince. From there, it’s another several hours to the end of the paved roads, and finally, after about 90 minutes of gravel road, we had to ford a small river. In non-drought years, trucks often end up washed down toward the coast if they’re not careful.

Les Anglais is the site of the first EarthSpark solar-electric microgrid—a town-sized electrification project made up of a 100-kilowatt solar array, battery bank, distribution station, and smart power grid. EarthSpark partnered with Kiva to help finance a critical piece of the project: the installation of light sockets and outlets in nearly 400 homes, and the connection of these homes to the new power grid. With those connections, the people of this remote town have electricity for the first time, and their electricity is reliable and consistent—unlike the under-resourced and unreliable national grid available in more-populated areas of Haiti.

The microgrid is a remarkable system of battery-backed solar power with a mesh network of smart meters that allow customers to pre-pay for just the electricity that they consume. It reframes electricity as a resource to be conserved and used carefully, and with the pre-pay model, people who have electricity in their homes for the first time are learning to think ecologically and economically from the start—avoiding the wasteful mindset that legacy models have instilled in the more-developed world.

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Rosane, Clean-Energy Advocate

Les Anglais, Haiti

Before they began the ambitious microgrid project, EarthSpark looked for ways to help the people of Haiti reduce their dependence on charcoal and other harmful fuels. Since most Haitian households cook food over charcoal stoves, EarthSpark introduced more-efficient stoves that produced the same heat while using 30%-less charcoal. Since most charcoal is made by the destruction of nearby mangrove ecosystems, this was a vital first step. They trained women like Rosane to resell the efficient cookstoves along with solar-powered reading lights and phone-charging equipment which also help to reduce the reliance upon kerosene and other fuels.

Now that Les Anglais has reliable solar power to most homes, Rosane serves as one of the town’s clean-energy advocates, encouraging her neighbors to switch to solar power when they can, and to look for ways to conserve energy when they do. She can often be found near EarthSpark’s Magazen (town store)—where she helps people top-up their accounts—and on market days, she and her friends sell efficient cookstoves to people who come from nearby towns.

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Julio’s Mill

On this brutally-hot July day, farmers from around the area brought their corn to be milled into cornmeal for sale at the local market. Powered by a large diesel engine, the mill is turned by a fast-moving leather belt that tends to break from time to time, so we were advised to stand clear, in case it came apart while we were nearby. EarthSpark is encouraging business owners in Les Anglais to adopt efficient electrical appliances, and the owner of this mill will soon take delivery of a new electric model to replace the unsafe and polluting diesel machines.