Natusara Primary School

Natusara Primary School is on remote Ono Island in the Kadavu Group. Four teachers teach its 56 students, who come from nearby islands and villages and all board at the school's two boarding houses. The teachers and their families live in five teachers' homes at the school.

Before solar, the school could only afford to run its generator for three hours each evening, to power the teachers' homes and night study, and for photocopying and other jobs that needed electricity. Once we installed the 3 kW system in 2014, the school saved more than FJ$3,500 a year, which it put into resources it could now use with 24-hour power.

Careful battery management settings gave the original batteries a nine-year life before we replaced them with SimpliPhi lithium units in 2023. At the same time we found cracks in some panels after the school had been through two cyclones, so we fitted new panels too.

The project was sponsored by the Fiji Water Foundation.