Rotary New Zealand says despite some challenges, 21 Tongan high schools are set to get solar power panels installed over the next five years.
In 2009, New Zealand aid with Rotary New Zealand and EcoCare Pacific Trust funded a pilot project in which five Tongan high schools had panels installed, so that computers could be used in classrooms.
A Rotary NZ volunteer, Greg Husband, says the pilot was such a success that volunteers are now visiting more high schools across Tonga to come up with a design plan.
He says they are looking at the buildings, the orientation of roofs and each school’s power usage.
But he says schools are often multi-metered, with power coming in from a number of different sources, making installation of solar panels difficult.
“Unless the meters are all amalgamated in some form, we end up sometimes not having a roof that’s close enough to a meter source that allows us to connect to it. This system they have of just taking power from the nearest pole around the perimeter of the school and feeding it into the system through a meter is very difficult as far of the installation of solar is concerned.”
Mr Husband says pending funding from the New Zealand government, work will begin next year.