Charity Boky Mamiko was founded in 2017 to improve the quality of education in rural schools in Madagascar. Initially their work was to establish a library of school books, as almost none were available.
Building on their success the charity today also provides teacher training and eduction programmes for health and nutrition, environmental studies and more recently – installing electricity!
An off-grid power systems for St-Joseph School in Maherivaratra, Northern Madagascar is an historic development for both the school and the region. Access to grid electricity in Madagascar is very limited and not reliable – whereas their Solar powered off-grid system with battery storage is capable of providing power 24 hours per day – even when the grid elsewhere has failed.
Electricity has a significant impact on the quality of education the school can provide: learning materials can be reproduced by photocopying and printing; image projectors can be used; computers installed and internet-based learning can be offered.
The school is now able to offer adult learning in the evenings – and outside lighting is also provided for safety and security.
The electrification project was the culmination of two years work – planning, funding, design, build and installation. The project was launched by ERG with the contributions from UFLEX, MSC Foundation Official, BFC Sistemi and Comoli Ferrari.
“Our schools are all lit up, our children study very willingly, the teachers can work and have lectures at any time” explained a delighted Sister Louisa – the director of Casa Pasquale’s shelter located just across the street.
The solar energy system has been designed to allow future expansion. In addition to providing power to St. Joseph’s school, the mini-grid already distributes power across the street to Casa Pasquale – a girl’s shelter which provides a home and meals for over 100 girls. Power is used to refrigerate food and essential medicines; they have an egg-incubator used to produce chickens; light is available around the campus, and also to the Boky Mamiko library which offers extend study hours for students when required.
Future plans include installing pumped water; and because the modular system can easily be expanded there really are no suggestions for future utilities which cannot be considered.
The power system comprises:
- 50 x solar panels of 210W offer 10.5kWp.
- 2 x SmartSolar MPPT solar charge controller 250/100 VE.Can
- 1 x Quattro 48/15000 230 Inverter Charger
- A Cerbo GX communication centre device manages the system and allows engineers to monitor the system using VRM – Victron Energy’s remote management platform – if a fault should occur the system can be diagnosed and corrected in spite of the remote location of the installation.
- GX Touch 50 provides finger-tip access to system status and programming.
- 3 x 3.6kWh UFLEX supercapacitor storage system 10.8kWh total at 48
- 2 x RUUVI sensors
The wiring of the four school buildings was carried out by ANKA Madagascar, who specialise in renewable energy. Their engineers and technicians worked day and night to complete the project on time – overcoming many challenges – perhaps most notably bringing the necessary equipment to the Maherivaratra village through floods and monsoon.
Classroom photographs are the property of Boky Mamiko.
