Provide electricity to 500 students in Belize

Our most recent site visit to Holy Cross Anglican School was completed a week ago. During that visit, Board Member John McHenry and volunteers including two from Baker Renewable Energy surveyed the school for location and upgrades needed to support the second 24-panel solar array. It was determined that the array can most...

Progress in fund-raising for our second solar array has kicked off to benefit the students that attend Holy Cross Anglican primary school in San Mateo, Belize. Even though it is located on a "tourist' island, San Mateo is one of the poorest communities in all of Belize, with lack of clean water, sanitary sewage, and...

As noted in the previous report(6), surveys of power bills from Belize Energy and Light (BEL), plus discussions with local staff, revealed that on average the array seems to be making a 20- 30% difference (reduction) in monthly billing costs against the meter that measures usage from the Computer Learning lab and composting...

The solar array atop the office complex at Holy Cross Anglican School (24 280W panels; 5MWatt overall) had been up and running continuously through about March 4, 2012. At this time, a problem developed -- potentially related to a storm that blew through -- causing a loss of power. Our contractor, Baker Renewable Energy,...

In our last report, we noted that BRE completed the solar panel installation and checkout. After checkout, the system was powered down pending installation of a "smart meter" by the Belize Power company. I am pleased to report that BEL completed smart-meter installation on Oct 28, and the system was powered on for routine...

With this report, our project is nearing completion! As noted in our last report, BRE sent two technicians to Holy Cross in early May to complete the roof repair and preparation work identified in the site engineering report. After completing that work, volunteers applied the white-reflective roof coating underlying the...

As noted in our last report, our contractor, Baker Renewable Energy (BRE), completed its engineering study which indicated that the office roof complex be used, while including modest cost for the roof repair needed to support rack-based PVC system. The proposed system included 24 Canadian 210W PVC panels and...

Following upon the schedule noted in the first project report, Foundation Board Member John McHenry made a site discovery visit along with two renewable energy engineers from Baker Roofing. This visit was conducted Dec 12-13 at HCAS in San Mateo, Belize. The visit included discussions with Vernon Wilson, Board Member Cullen...

Pre-project engineering work has begun toward supplying the students of Holy Cross Anglican school with a renewable energy supply. Both wind turbine and solar-voltaic systems -- or a combination thereof -- are being studied. Determination will be made based on the optimal cost-benefit solution given the funds (about 35K)...