University restores villagers' confidence on solar energy LAMPHAI INTATHEP The King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (Kmutt) has brought a solar energy into a remote village of Koh Hang in Krabi province to restore villagers' confidence on alternative energy, after the state’s solar home project failed to solve an electricity shortage. With an area of 15.43 square kilometres and approximately 20-minute far from the mainland by boat, almost villagers on Hang Island have relied on diesel-based power generation and their solar panels were abandoned on a roof. In 2004, the Thaksin-led government initiated an installation of the solar home systems to provide valuable electricity to rural villages where had no access to electricity countrywide, including Koh Hang where houses 498 people. Today, more than 80% of the solar home systems installed on the island are broken, in fact within the first year of installation. A lack of maintenance knowledge and adequate state support forced the villagers returning to depend on diesel-based power generation. Usa Boonbumroong, a researcher and head of the Kmutt’s solar energy project, said that the solar home systems were sufficient to provide electricity for only four hours of maximum continuous use. Most of them were now broken because of faulty inverter and it cost about 600 baht to fix it. A battery must be changed every two years. “It could be broken from a little ant crawling into," he said. Recently, the Kmutt provided the Packaged Hybrid Power Supply (PHPS) to Koh Hang village to soften the residential demand for electricity at hand. "So far, we aim to bring back villagers’ confidence on solar energy once more time which has vanished  with their broken solar home systems,” he said. The PHPS has total power output of not less than five kilowatts, providing single phase alternating current electricity at 230 volts and 50 Hertz for 24 hours. (สามารถผลิตไฟฟ้ารวมไม่ต่ำกว่า 5 กิโลวัตต์ จ่ายไฟฟ้ากระแสสลับ 1 เฟส 230 โวล์ท 50 เฮิร์ต ได้ตลอด 24 ชั่วโมง) The PHPS were also distributed to several remote villages living without access to main source of electricity, such as, those in Phetchabun’s Tat Mok National Park, Tak’s Mae Moei National Park, and Kanchanaburi’s Thong Pha Phum National Park. A team of Kmutt students were also sent to teach and train villagers about basic electrical and solar home maintenance. The clean energy science camps have been regularly organised for local pupils. “We should not only bring technology to them, but also a body of knowledge to ensure local understanding and maintenance capability for the sake of energy sustainable use,” said Mr Usa. Moreover, the Kmutt and the Provincial Electricity Authority have been working together to conduct a study on the suitable electric supply patterns for Koh Hang in order to provide power to meet the island’s demand in future. Sakkarin Bhumirat, the Kmutt’s president, said that students have also benefited from the university’s solar energy project as they can gain working experience and efficiently adapt what they have learned in class to real-life practice. “Importantly, everyone has a right to light including these Koh Hang villagers,” he added. Jatuporn Wanchuy, Koh Hung village chief, said that the electricity demand in the village kept increasing and both state solar home systems, if already repaired, and the Kmutt’s solar energy project can soften the rising demand and reduce a cost of diesel fuel used to generate power. On the island, over 60-liter diesel were used to generate daily electricity which cost around 1,800 baht a day. Also, LPG was brought from the outside for household cooking, cost 15,000 baht per month. "It would be not economically worthwhile to build the transmission cables for carrying electric power from the mainland to the island with 498 people, but the villagers want more stable supply of electricity as this is also our right," he added. (END) Kmutt students taught the villagers to fix the solar home's broken inverter. The Kmutt’s president Sakkarin Bhumirat (left) and the solar energy project head Usa Boonbumroong (right) gave the solar cell power supply to Koh Hung. Sent from my iPad This e-mail message and any attachments from Post Publishing may contain confidential, proprietary and/or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby warned that unauthorized use, publication, disclosure, disseminate or copying either in whole or in part of said information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email transmission in error, please delete it and notify the sender immediately. Post Publishing accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail or the consequences of any action taken on the basis of the information transmitted.