Renewable electricity in the Jacmel Valley

"Assific is entrusting the technical design to the students of a high school with which the Veolia Water agency in Pontchâteau is in contact, especially by hosting the trainees.I'm happy to provide my assistance and my technical skills in maintenance to these young people and to this humanitarian project."

Yannick Sourget

Association de Solidarité Internationale pour la Formation, l'Instruction et la Coopération (Assific), created in 2005, backs some fifteen projects every year that promote instruction, education and health. It is especially active in Africa, Haiti and Indonesia.

A difficulty educational situation

Here we are in the Jacmel Valley, a huge commune of about 40 000 inhabitants in Southern Haiti. The village is hard to get to, the roads aren't tarred, you have to cross a ford to get there. In the flood season, the valley is sometimes completely cut off. The Léonce Mégie school there has 488 students and employs an educational and service team of some 30 persons. New buildings will shortly accommodate a professional section reserved for the young people of the region, for whom learning a trade is indispensable. The energy situation of the school is complicated. Lacking a public electric power grid, it is supplied with electricity by a small generator that charges batteries which provide a trickle of electricity by day. The capacity of the generator is too low and the cost of fuel is prohibitive for the budget of the school, which already spends nearly half of the budget of the canteen to buy propane, which has to be transported from Port au Prince (100 km), with all the hazards that this entails.

Safer, cheaper energy

The project aims to install a combined power generation unit (solar/wind/biogas) in the school. It is supported jointly by Assific and Frères de L'instruction Chrétienne in Haiti, who teach nearly 10 000 students in two schools (including Léonce Mégie) and employ more than 500 teachers and administrative and service personnel. For Assific, they guarantee the regular monitoring of the facilities installed. Technical design of the project has been entrusted to the students and teachers of the "energy" sections (STI2D) of Marcel Callo High School of Redon, in France, which is also very active on the project. The presence of similar equipment in France serves to confirm the performance of the installation in Haiti.

An educational project

The project takes place in several steps, with each of them reviewed, so that further action is adjusted accordingly, between April 2012 and December 2014. The savings made are reinvested in accommodating more students or improving the training program. The power generation system is also an educational subject for the future professional section.