Gaunavou Primary School

Gaunavou Primary School is in Gunu Village on Naviti Island, in the Yasawa Group. It has 135 students, taught by 6 teachers.

Cyclone Winston destroyed most of the old wooden school in 2016, and impressive new concrete buildings replaced it, so the community was especially glad to have reliable power in them.

Before solar, a small generator supplied one to three hours of power a day, and some power in the evenings for night study. We expected the project to divert more than FJ$4,000 a year from generator fuel into educational equipment and resources. On top of that, the school no longer has to contribute to the hire and fuel of the outboard boat that brought its generator fuel from Lautoka. Without solar, those costs would only have kept rising, with the price of fuel and the school's push to use more computers.

The 6 kW system, installed in August 2022, included 16 Canadian Solar 380 W panels, an OutBack FLEXpower TWO inverter/charger, six SimpliPhi PHI 3.8 lithium batteries, a Clenergy Solar Terrace II ground-mount system and various electrical works.

The school committed to spending 20 minutes each week picking up plastic – less waste, and great learning for the kids.

The project was funded by the Australian Government's International Climate Change Engagement Program, to whom the kids at the school and the whole community send a big vinaka vakalevu – thank you. As always, our thanks go to CBS Power Solutions for partnering with us on the installation, and for their leadership on women's empowerment: they now actively employ women in their engineering team. We also thank, with much ongoing gratitude, our valued supporters.