The Solar Maasai / SunPower to the People Team has returned from Maasailand with stories of a successful, yet challenging, endeavor! The Emprukel schoolhouse near Enoosaen village in rural Southwestern Kenya now has light, fans, vaccine refrigeration, computers, and electrical outlets for the first time. The school is already attracting new, credentialed teachers, more students, and the interest of Kenyan parliament as a model of future rural schoolhouse solar electrification! The school is well on its way to becoming a hub of educational excellence in this remote Maasai region of the Transmara district, and expansion plans are already underway. The US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, was in attendance at the grand opening ceremony and made a personal promise to the community to fund the much needed school improvement projects of glass window installation (a rare architectural feature in this region) and the replacement of the makeshift desks which currently fill the seven classrooms. After a month-long series of close calls and unforeseen obstacles (and 18 months of planning prior to arriving in Kenya), the 5kW off-grid SunPower solar electric system has now been realized. While the system was not technically finished by the opening day celebration (inverters hadn’t yet cleared customs in Nairobi), the lights did come on when Ambassador Ranneberger received the honor of flipping the main power switch to officiate the ceremony (wheew, it was seriously close, good thing we arrived before dawn to rewire the system with a temporary inverter!). The One Million Lights foundation was also in attendance to present solar powered LED lanterns to each mother of an Emprukel school student!
Emprukel valley illuminated at night for the first time. Taken from the adjacent hilltop, the spots of light are LED lanterns spread across the valley, and the long strip of light in the middle is the illuminated schoolhouse in the distance.
During our stay in Kenya, we also led a month-long PV training intensive and graduated 17 solar technicians from the village and surrounding area. The top female and top male students – based on final exam scores, solar enthusiasm, dedication to the project, and demonstration of leadership in the community – were awarded with internship positions at Northern California’s pioneering solar school and demonstration site, the Solar Living Institue in Hopland. We look forward to returning to the village in March to tune the system, install the remaining monitoring equipment, and pick up the internship recipients, Jonathan Ntuitiai and Maxmillah Nairesiai. See video, "The Next Phase - Education" below for an introduction to Jonathan and Maxmillah.
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