click to enlargeSolar home systems (SHS)
Solar electricity provides a vehicle for social upliftment, job creation, education, health, and access to information via radio, television and telecommunication. Hundreds of millions of people around the world are without electricity today, mostly living in areas where utility companies are unwilling to invest in establishing a grid.
The challenge is that the people who need it most don’t have the funds to finance solar energy. Solar Vision is operating, partly subsidized by the local municipality, in parts of the Limpopo province in South Africa and has roughly 8.300 customers.
Solar Vision has a positive impact on the community it operates in. It is a textbook example of how PV technology can quickly raise the living standard of people in rural areas and developing countries. At the same time, it benefits the environment immediately and in the future, allowing these areas to leapfrog over conventional polluting energy sources.
Our standard small SHS (Solar Home System) system of one 50Wp solar panel with a battery will operate 4 fluorescent lamps and one 14" black-and-white DC television set, a radio or cassette player and a small DC fan for at least 4 hours every night for the lights and television. The system size can be increased by increasing the size/number of the solar panels and battery bank. SHS systems are typically used in rural houses, schools, health centers and offices.
The standard SHS kit consists of:
- A solar panel/module to transform light energy from the sun into electricity
- A solar deep cycle battery bank to store the power generated by the solar panel
- A charge controller to protect the battery from over-charge and over discharge
- An appropriate number of DC lights (fluorescent tubes or U-type energy saving lights)
- Connecting cables and electrical accessories such as switches, sockets etc.
- An inverter unit incase of a need for AC power from the system
