环球英语 — 609：Solar Energy in Rema
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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Ryan Geertsma.
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And I'm Robin Basselin. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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The sun goes down early in Rema. And the villagers needed light. But in this group of Ethiopian villages, there was no electricity. This lack of light and electricity affected the villagers of Rema in many ways.
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The lack of light affected education. Many children had to walk for a few hours each day to get water for their families. Because of this, the children could not attend school during the day. They also could not study at night because there was no light in their homes.
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The lack of light also affected work. The villages of Rema are very hot. The villagers find it difficult to work at their trades in the heat. But since there was no light at night, they did not have a choice. They had to work in the heat of the day.
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Finally, this lack of light affected health. Many of the villagers used kerosene lamps at night. These devices provided light by burning a special substance. But the light created by the flames is not very strong. People who use this kind of light often suffer damage to their eyes. These lights also create a lot of smoke and ash. This ash stays in the air. It causes breathing problems for many villagers. Some villagers even suffer long term health problems because of it.
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These lamps are also dangerous. It is possible for a person to turn them over accidently. This can quickly cause a large house fire. It can also cause burns or other serious injuries.
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One common solution to the electricity problem is a diesel generator. This machine supplies electricity to the houses and other buildings in a village. It is powered by diesel fuel. However, this fuel is very costly. Often, villages cannot continue to pay for the fuel. Then they are not able to continue using electricity in their homes.
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One non-government organization wanted to give a diesel generator to the village of Rema. But the villagers said no. They knew they would not be able to pay the high prices for diesel fuel. And they wanted to provide electricity and light for many years into the future.
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So the villagers of Rema looked for other solutions. They discovered that another village was using light from the sun to create electricity. This solar energy solved many problems. In that village, the people from Rema learned about Stiftung Solarenergie, the Solar Energy Foundation.
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The Solar Energy Foundation is a not for profit organization. The organization's goal is to bring continuing electricity and light to as many rural or country areas of Africa as possible. It believes that developing solar energy in Africa will have positive effects. They believe it will reduce poverty. And that it will improve health, education, and increase development.
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The Solar Energy Foundation provided each home or small business with a solar-home-system, or SHS. Each system can power basic lighting and small electronics like a radio. The SHS contains four pieces of equipment. The most important piece of equipment is a flat box that is placed on the top of a building. This box contains the photovoltaic, or PV, cells which turn sunlight into electricity.
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Each SHS also contains a solar box and four lamps. The solar box controls the whole system. It has a battery which stores the electricity gathered from the sunlight. It also holds all the wires and a controller that lets a Solar Energy Foundation worker turn off the system from another place. The lamps in the SHS are powered by electricity and can provide four hours of light each day.
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The final piece of the SHS is a user manual. This book tells the villagers how to take care of their system. It also gives them a place to record their payments. Each family pays a small amount every month for the solar home systems. This fee is used to keep the systems in good working condition.
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The use of solar energy has improved the lives of the villagers in Rema. Samson Tsegaye is the Ethiopian country representative for the Solar Energy Foundation. He explained some of the advantages the project has given the villages of Rema.
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"The solar programme has helped develop the community in many ways. The local women's group has set up a popular night school. This school is for uneducated adults to improve their reading skills. School children can now study at night. One teacher claims her students' test results have improved by seventy-five percent. Fewer people are suffering from eye and breathing problems connected with kerosene smoke."
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By using solar energy, the villagers were also able to build a pump that brings water into the center of the villages. Now the women and children do not have to spend many hours of their day getting water.
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This development also brought more jobs to the villages. The Solar Energy Foundation set up a training school in Rema. At the school, students get training in technical and business skills. These are the people that care for and fix the solar-home-systems.
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There are also fee collectors. There are nine of them in every village. Their job is to collect the monthly fee from all the villagers. Villagers can also tell the fee collectors if there is a problem with their system that needs fixing. All the fees are then given to a village committee. This team of people uses it to pay for any needed parts or fixing of the systems in the village.
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The villages of Rema now have over 2000 Solar Home Systems. But the Solar Energy Foundation did not want these systems to end after the foundation stopped working in the area. So they gave the community the resources it needed to continue the project for many years. They trained technicians. And they designed a system for collecting money and caring for the solar energy systems.
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By using solar energy, this project has improved education and the economy in Rema. Now the Solar Energy Foundation is thinking about the future. Dr. Harald Schützeichel is the Director of the Solar Energy Foundation. He described his hopes for the organization.
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"We now have a special financing system that will let us establish a system of Solar Centres all over Ethiopia over the coming years. Our aim is to begin self-supporting solar businesses across Ethiopia - and to make ourselves unnecessary as a non-government organization."
