Watch This Fishing Village In Haiti Get Transformed by A Solar Microgrid
Sigora Solar recently completed a solar powered microgrid in Mole Saint Nicolas, Haiti – a remote fishing village seven hours by truck from Port Au Prince. Sigora is a for-profit company that bills themselves as the green utility. The microgrid has already made 545 connections in 6 months, and plan to reach 1000 by the end of summer. They train and hire local staff to build and maintain the microgrid infrastructure. Their mission is to provide electricity that is clean, fairly priced, and reliable.
Haiti is at the forefront of new electric utility business models that involve smart metering, prepaid electricity, and are heavy on solar. Half of Haiti’s population makes less than one dollar/day, but companies like SigoraSolar and Earthspark international have been proving the financial case using new business models. EarthSpark International has been developing smart, prepaid microgrids around Port Au Prince since 2008, and have made their smart meter technology available to entrepreneurs around the world.
Bonus Video: Earthspark International Featured in “Solar Frontiers”
Sigora Haiti started with a small dream of electrifying a clinic and has grown into a full scale Green Utility project. Our 10 year plan is to electrify 2 million people by 2025. This year we opened an office in Port-au-Prince, where we are launching an ambitious pilot program. Not only are we building a lasting relationship with the Haitian community, but we have designed and developed a micro-grid system to provide an affordable, efficient and sustainable power supply.
Sigora’s work is already underway having purchased 2.5 acres of land for Photovoltaic installations and 195 acres for wind energy and our Solar Academy. We’ve signed a 50 year power supplier contract with Môle-Saint-Nicolas, secured partnerships with key vendors and have developed a metering technology ready for domestic manufacturing. The Sigora Meter, a proprietary prepaid energy metering technology, has built in demand control, community wide emergency alert and energy monitoring.
