Bouma Primary School
Korovou Village, Bouma, Taveuni Island
Bouma Primary School is in Korovou Village, Bouma, on Taveuni. Its 9 teachers teach 157 students from Year 1 to Year 8, and there are eight teachers' homes at the school.
Before solar, the school's diesel generator ran for an average of two hours a day, and in the evening when needed so the teachers could get their work done. The teachers' homes had no wiring, so the generator couldn't power them. Instead, the teachers used their own small generators, kerosene lanterns or battery lamps.
The 3.5 kW system, installed between December 2015 and February 2016, included 12 Yingli 275 W panels, an SMA SB3000TL grid inverter, an SMA SI4.4M off-grid inverter, 22.8 kWh of SimpliPhi lithium batteries and a Clenergy ground-mount system. We replaced all the tube lighting with LED globes, wired the eight teachers' homes and repaired the wiring in several classrooms.
The project was funded by Peter Bickerton, the Rotary Clubs of Lindfield, Ku-ring-gai, Roseville Chase and Taveuni (Fiji), and the Edwards family.
- Students
- 157
- Teachers
- 9
- Solar array
- 3.5kW
- Battery storage
- 22.8kWh
