CAMBODIA: Water management goes solar

Bosleav farmers in front of solar-powered water pumps (Photo: Botumroath Lebun/IRIN) 

KRATIE, 14 August 2012 (IRIN) - Floods and droughts are two leading causes of agricultural losses in Cambodia, where farmers have begun using solar power to manage their water supply and counter the impact of increasingly erratic weather patterns.

In the disaster-prone Bosleav (also known as Bos Leav) commune in Kratie Province - some 480km northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh - the country’s first solar-powered water pumping station was recently completed. The solar-powered pumps push water into storage tanks and then gravity takes over to distribute the water to households, said Dara R.M. Ung, a project advisor at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).

Some 140km of the Mekong River, where 70 percent of residents live along the banks, runs through Kratie Province, which has been ranked as one of the country’s most disaster-prone provinces. The ministry is carrying out the project as part of its National Adaptation Programme for Action (NAPA) to help farmers adjust to extreme weather.

Solar energy lighting up rural areas of Cambodia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C0kKrE49Bo

Largest-ever Cambodian solar project launched

Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Rann Reuy and Diana Montaño
The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia's biggest solar power initiative to date – expected to provide electricity to 12,000 households in off-grid areas – will be completed on January 31, according to officials involved with the project.

Yiang Tal, chief of administration at the Rural Electrification Fund, said more than 10,000 of a total of 12,000 solar home systems had already been installed in Ratanakiri, Preah Vihear, Siem Reap and four other provinces as part of a World Bank-funded project.

Some villagers are already using their newly installed panels.

Sunlabob wins World Bank tender to install 12,000 Solar Home Systems in Cambodia

14. June 2011
By Sunlabob Renewable Energy Ltd

In Mar 2011, Sunlabob Renewable Energy Ltd won an international tender for a World Bank financed procurement contract, handled locally by the Rural Electrification Office of the Department of Electricity (part of the Ministry of Energy and Mines), to supply and install 12,000 Solar Home Systems (30W and 50W), including spares, to seven provinces across Cambodia.

Solar Home Systems bring huge benefits to homes in developing countries which aren’t connected to the national electricity grid. Without the system, villagers have to use kerosene lamps for light. These lamps emit lots of carbon dioxide and harmful gases, and also contain flammable liquids that have more probability of causing burns and fires than any electric lighting source. Each year, many homes and even entire communities worldwide burn to the ground due to fires starting from toppled kerosene lamps.

Cambodia's Isolated Villagers Change Their Lives With Lower-Cost Solar

March 4, 2011
By COCO LIU of ClimateWire
The New York Times

ROU HAL, Cambodia -- With a desire to one day become a doctor and save lives, 12-year-old Phat Sopwa devotes most of his time to study. After dark, though, his dream grew dim.

Living in this typical Cambodian village without electricity, Phat used to do homework by a kerosene lamp that emits no more light than a cigarette lighter. The dim ray hurt his eyes, made him drowsy and forced the boy to quickly give up his tasks.

That dark homework time ended in February with a gift from his aunt. What Phat received is a small solar array, which powers three light bulbs and made his wooden hut fill with bright light for the first time.

"Solar is much better [than the kerosene lamp]. I can now see characters in my textbooks clearly," said Phat, while happily flipping on and off the light switch.

Cambodia to buy 12,000 home-based solar PV systems

Friday, July 16 2010
Lee Hong Liang
RechargeNews.com

Cambodia is playing catch-up on a 2007-borne plan to install off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) system in rural areas as the government now plans to acquire 12,000 systems in August.

A rural electrification plan received funding support from the World Bank three years ago to spread clean and sustainable power to village households in remote areas that are not connected to the national grid.

To date, the Cambodian government has only managed to test and install the home-based solar PV system on a very small scale basis since 2007.

“The home-based solar system can generate about 40 watt peak (Wp) of electricity for each household,” says Toch Sovanna, director of the energy technique department at Cambodia’s ministry of industry, mines and energy.

“We plan to bring in 12,000 solar systems next month and have invited vendors to submit their bids,” Sovanna tells Recharge.

He adds that the vendors may be either foreign or local firms.

The cost of each solar PV system could between $300-400.

Cambodia's goal is to provide electricity from different forms of renewable energy sources such as biomass, mini-hydro and solar to all rural households by 2020.

Neighbouring Laos has had more success in its 2007 rural electrification plan which received the same support from the World Bank. The components of the solar PV systems, however, have not been functioning properly.

The Southeast Asian country has installed about 2,000 systems in rural households and plans to increase that figure to 100,000 by 2020.

Other Asian nations such as Bangladesh and Bhutan are also looking to install more of such cost-effective home-based solar PV systems to bring electricity to households situated in inaccessible areas.

Japan to finance 4 major projects in Cambodia

16 March 2010
By E.B.
Cambodge Soir
Translated from French by Alain de Veng
Click here to read the article in French

On Thursday 18 March, the Japanese ambassador and the Cambodian foreign minister will sign an agreement for the donation of a Japanese aid package amounting to about $31 million to Cambodia.

The donation is directed to four projects: the construction of the Neak Leung bridge, the introduction of clean energy through production of electricity from solar power, the capacity improvement for facing natural disasters stemming from climate change, and for the preservation of forest.

Lending Scheme to Bring Solar to Cambodia’s Poor

A business in Cambodia’s Kandal province aims to provide loans and solar equipment in one location. (Photo: Kamworks)

March 8, 2010
By SIMON MARKS
The New York Times

With access to solar-powered energy products for Cambodia’s rural poor extremely limited, the solar energy company Kamworks and the Cambodia Mutual Savings and Credit Network are partnering to provide low-interest loans to customers hoping to outfit their homes with solar panels, while Kamworks will provide and install the equipment.

Directors at the two companies said the scheme — the first of its kind in Cambodia — will help the country’s rural poor gain access to renewable energy.

“You have to say the investment for solar-powered technology is higher initially than fossil fuels,” said Jeroen Verschelling, a director at Kamworks. “Even though there is a payback time of less than one year, people still find it very hard to make the investment.”

Mr Verschelling said all the equipment Kamworks produces will have to be of the highest quality as “the moment it stops working the client will stop paying” back the loan and the foundations of the entire partnership will come undone.

Buyers interested in equipping their homes with solar technologies will first pay a visit to Cambodia Mutual Savings, which will share retail space with Kamworks at a building in Cambodia’s Kandal province, to take out a loan ranging from $25 to $599, depending on the product. A visit to Kamworks would complete the purchase.

Customers can go for a small solar-powered lantern, which aims to replace kerosene lighting at a cost of $25, or they can purchase a complete solar home system, which ranges from $199 for a 20-watt array to $599 for 80 watts.

The lantern comes with a one-year warranty, while the panel systems are covered for 20 years.

“This should create less dependency on fossil fuels for power,” said Mr Verschelling. “We are trying to do something about climate change.”

Mr Verschelling said that entering the market before the national grid expands is probably its best bet with less than 20 percent of rural inhabitants with a sustained power supply for electricity.

“I’m not sure if the grid is really the answer for the poor parts of society,” he said. “It’s not a clean energy source as most of the energy comes from fossil fuels.”

Moreover, once the loan is paid off, households fitted with the solar products should see their living costs decline.

“It is totally new and if it is efficient we can develop it further,” said Christine Dellocque, managing director at Cambodia Mutual.

Ms. Dellocque said the lender had determined interest rates for the loans — which could be as low as 1.7 percent — by conducting studies of household wages and saving capabilities among potential borrowers in Kandal province.

Before a loan is handed out, Cambodia Mutual will ensure that borrowers have set up a savings account at the company, a measure Ms. Dellocque said will act as security to the loan.

“If clients have a capacity for saving, they also have the capacity for credit,” she said.

Ms. Dellocque added that using traditional collateral — land titles and property — as security for such small loans was unbalanced. Instead, the solar panels themselves will be used as collateral, she said.

Cambodia To Develop Solar Power To Meet Domestic Need

PHNOM PENH, Nov 26 (Bernama) -- Ten companies from eight countries have sought permission to invest in solar energy projects in Cambodia, after the removal of a 15 percent duty on imports of the materials needed to build solar plants in August, China's Xinhua news agency cited a local media as saying.

"We have received many proposals for our approval, and we are now instructing them to study the domestic electricity market," the ministry Secretary of State Sat Samy was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

"Two companies, from Japan and Malaysia, are close to beginning development on solar investment projects."

The other companies are from the United States, China, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Singapore, he said. They were planning developments capable of generating between 10 and 50 megawatts of electricity.

The Cambodian government plans to supply electricity throughout the entire country by 2020 by developing renewable energy resources, specifically looking at solar, hydro and biomass- fueled power, Sat Samy said.

Energy demand in Cambodia is expected to grow 3.7 percent per year from 2005 to 2030 as manufacturing industries are established and more households are connected to the electricity grid, according to a report released this month by the Asian Development Bank.

Just 20 percent of households are currently connected to the national grid, which is fragmented into isolated power systems centered on provincial towns and cities.

Sat Samy said the unserviced households present an opportunity for environmentally friendly electricity investment, adding that the solar industry had greater potential than in more-developed countries such as Thailand and Vietnam.

Sat Samy said he anticipated electricity generated from solar panels would range from US$0.12 cents to US$0.15 cents a kilowatt-hour, higher than the expected price of the power to be generated from hydroelectric dams under construction along the Kingdom's rivers.

Cambodia Installs Over 500 Solar Energy Electricity

PHNOM PENH, July 14 (Bernama) -- More than 500 solar energy electricity generations have been installed in Cambodia's rural areas to help improve the living standard of poor people, China's Xinhua news aagency said quoting local media reports Tuesday.

The UNDP (United Nations Development Program) and local organisations, so far, have cooperated each other to install more than 500 solar energy electricity generations at the rural areas of Cambodia, where the electricity is not able to access for everyday life in households, schools and referral hospitals, according to Khmer language newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea.

"The producing of the solar energy electricity does not affect the environment and global warming, and the solar energy electricity will be used for healthcare and education fields," Kong Pharith, president of Capacity Building Organization was quoted as saying. Capacity Building Organization is an expert for installing the solar energy system at the rural areas in the country.

"When we have electricity, our local students can access to use computers in their schools," he added.

Now, the local and international organisations are focusing on the installation of battery charging stations for people in the rural areas, he said, adding that price for charging battery will be reduced to 30 percent with support from the UNDP.

Cambodia has 30 percent of its population living in poverty. Most of them live in the rural areas, while 80 percent are farmers.