Solar project brightens remote village in Nepal

MAKAWANPUR, Nepal – While much of the urban areas are suffering due to increasing load shedding, a small remote village in Makwanpur glows brightly. Until recently Thingan was a village which was not receiving any attention from the local and central authorities.

Local Development Officer (LDO) of Makawanpur 

 Yuva Raj Subedi and Prof. Ahn Sung-hoon of Seoul National University (SNU) jointly inaugurated the Thingan Photovoltaic system by switching on the light.

This project was accomplished in one of the remote and poor villages of Makawanpur district known as Thingan village. Fifty-seven houses of the village have been electrified with 5kW capacity Photovoltaic systems with power transmission lines throughout the village.

This is the second such project in Nepal. A high tech photo sensor switch is installed in all the street lights which automatically turns on the light when it gets dark and switch off the light when it gets brighter to save energy misusage.

Four Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights were installed for each family and a monthly user fee of Rs. 100 is charged per house for the use of 2.2kWh. Additional penalty of Rs. 1500 is charged for houses which consume more than the prescribed limit. 

The battery house was constructed by the labor contribution of the consumers while Korean team provided with design and financial support.

For continued use of the system, additional rooms are built for income generation which will be rented to the local community for poultry farming and mushroom cultivation. Some 1,016 square meters of  landsite was donated by the local villager Mr. Hira Bahadur Ghale for the implementation of the system. 

SNU Prof. Ahn, Prof. Caroline S. Lee of Hanyang University and Prof. Song Chul-ki  of Gyeongsang National University of South Korea formed The Third Joint Nepal Volunteer Corps together with their students in order to carry out this project. Prof. Ramesh K. Maskey of Kathmandu University took delightful pleasure in participating in the project. 

Speaking in the inauguration ceremony, LDO Yuvaraj Subedi mentioned that teaching  the solar technology means to  give the key to the development of the society. SNU Professor Ahn and the director of the Volunteer Corps said that active participation of the local villagers made this near-impossible project possible.

The project was accomplished with ten million Nepalese rupees provided by Joint Nepal Volunteer Corps in addition to villagers’ contribution.

Korean volunteers have also provided scholarship for dozen of poor students in Thingan village. A library with 800 books and facilities of computers, projector and laptops were also donated.

Korean professors hoped that the facility will be of great help in the education of students. They also encouraged the students to take advantage of the facilities to the fullest.

The project was pushed ahead jointly by Binayak Bhandari, currently Ph. D. candidate of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University and former students and researchers at Kathmandu University. The project committee was headed by the chairman of local user committee Jagat  Bahadur Ghale. The group also successfully completed similar but smaller capacity projects in Lama Hotel and Rimche villages in Langtang National Park of Rasuwa district last year.