Interviews With Ss20 Users

INTERVIEWS WITH ISHACK CLIENTS (DC MICRO-GRID USERS) 2014 SPECIALIZED SOLAR SYSTEMS is involved as the primary supplier of DC micro-grids for the iShack Project that is providing mass renewable energy electricity, on a pay-for-use basis, to residents of an informal settlement in Stellenbosch (Enkanini), South Africa using only solar energy. The off-grid system that is supplied, the SS20 DC Micro-grid baseline smartbox, uses advance technologies with build in remote management and is produced by Specialized Solar Systems. Basically, the end-users (customers) of these off-grid DC micro-grid energy producing systems, are allocated payment packages for energy usage. This is all managed remotely by Specialized Solar Systems web-based management platform, SSS-EPOWER, which is an advance remote energy management utility that has proven to be a very effective tool in off-grid energy management (more to come on SSS-EPOWER). The project aims to provide the service to over 1500 clients. They are training a group of local franchisees called "iShack Agents" to install and maintain the solar systems and to market the service in their community. The clients pay a monthly fee for the service to ensure long term operational sustainability. The energy service provides lighting, television, cell-phone charging and additional energy for music, dvd players and radios. The utility is scalable and in future, fridges and water heaters will be added. This project is using solar electricity to demonstrate how ecologically sound technologies can be used appropriately to incrementally upgrade slums and at the same time build local enterprising capacity within the community. This enterprise development model recognises the significant existing social, human and physical capital within slums. A key objective of the iShack business model is to harness this existing capital to unlock a range of social and economic benefits and development opportunities for the community. Our vision goes far beyond simply providing clean, safe and affordable energy. Other technologies and services that can be incorporated into the model include off-grid sanitation, ecological housing, water services and food production. In May 2014 Nobelusi Kenyana and Gwendolyne Meyer interviewed and photographed (with their permission) a group of iShack Clients on their experiences of the iShack Solar electricity service since joining the iShack Project. The clients were interviewed by Nobelusi in isiXhosa and this document is the transcript of five interviews translated by her into English.[widgetkit id=97] "Photography: (c)gwendolynmeyer2014"Interview 1:1. HOW ARE YOU FINDING THE SYSTEMS"I find that solar is very helpful to me, because in many things it prevents my kids from vagabonding - wandering up and down the community. Like for instance my children like to watch programmes like 'Generations', so now I think in that case it has really helped me a lot in that regard, because now we sit in one place".

Origin: clean-energy-technologies.blogspot.com