Project : To provide Solar based lighting solution for the village of Demul one and half hour's drive from Kaza the capital of Spiti Valley, at a height of 14400 feet above sea level; And a Solar Powered Vaccine Fridge at Kaza
Reason of doing the project: Demul village has access to conventional energy which comes from a Hydro station only in the summer months from April - November, during this time the input supply voltage is less than 110 Volts making it useless to be used for any purpose, hence the village is practically in darkness even in the summer months.
In the peak Winter months from November end till early April the Hydro station freezes hence there is no access to the village at all.
To solve this problem of power the solar system is installed in the centre of the village and cable lines are laid to evacuate the power to each house.
Because of the shortage of power no proper vaccine storage facility is available in complete Spiti Valley, this is the first solar powered fridge to be installed in Spiti to store Vaccines for the entire population of Spiti.
Project funded by: Human Wave Italy: Human Wave website link
Contact Person: Mr. Massimo Pietrantoni
Project Cost: Rs 11,95,000
Project Execution:
The project was written last year by Sunlit Future based on the requirement by Ecosphere and proposed to Human Wave Italy, after intense cost cutting and fund raising activity the project was finally approved in March 2011 and work was started in the month of April 2011.
Logistics was a major task and it took utmost care by our team to make sure that all material reaches the destination without a scratch. We started to order material in April and assemble material also in may 2011. Special care was given for the cable to be used between house to house to take power from the centralized system and the LED lights, which were contributed by Innovlite at a special discount for this very project.
Finally the material was dispatched by transport from Auroville to Chandigarh on the 1st June 2001.
And the Solar Fridge along with its component was hand carried by the team from Chennai till Chandigarh. Finally the team comprising of 6 team member of Sunlit left on the 15th June to reach Chandigarh on the 18th June morning.
From there the material was loaded in a jeep and driven all the way from Chandigarh via Shimla, Rampur, Repongpeo to Kaza nonstop from 18 June morning to 19 June evening a travel of 36 hours non stop, the team travelled in another jeep along with the material till Kaza.
Material was delivered on the 20th morning on site. But due to sudden change in altitude from sea level to 14,400 feet the complete team had breathing related issue and due to which the work was discontinued for the first two days to give rest and to acclimatise to less oxygen level .
Finally the team got together and one team with the help of local people started to lay the cable between houses and the other team installed the solar system. solar system was installed by the 24th June and the house to house cable work was finished by the 26th June and the internal cabling work for each light was done by the 29th June 2011.
Technical details: Solar Panels: Power is produced by 1.8 KW Solar system. 75 watts Solar panels 24 number, from BEL Installed on a aluminium frame
Battery Bank: 300 Ah / 48 Volt Maintenance free 2 volts cell from Amaraja
Inverter: 1.5 KVA / 48 volts Solar inverter from Cotex
Charge Controller: 60 Amps / 48 Volts Tristar from Morning start
Electrical Load :Each house has been provided with 3 LED lamps of 3.6 watts from a Bangalore based company Innovlite to be used for 6 hours a day
The system is designed to provide 4 lights of 3.6 watts for 6 hours, the 4th light will be bought by the villagers themselves and installed latter as per there requirement.
Solar Fridge: made by Phocus capacity 165 litres
Operated on 3 X 75 watts solar panels and 2 X 100 Ah sealed maintenance free batteries.
