EnerTek Global: Solar powered education in Peru

That’s a lot of green and sunshine in the photo above! And in the small green cabinet is Victron blue – providing the clue as to what makes this site special.

Solar in Peru

Peru uses fossil fuel for around half of its total energy generation. In order to limit this trend companies like EnerTek Global, who have their headquarters in Lima, have become instrumental in changing attitudes towards energy and its use. EnerTek Global is a Peruvian environmental engineering company which provides services in the areas of renewable energy systems for hydrological, wind and solar projects. They are also Victron Energy distributors.

As Peru receives approximately 2.5 times more solar energy than Northern Europe, this makes it an ideal location for the installation of solar photovoltaic systems (PV). In such a location solar PV systems together with batteries are capable of providing a reliable power supply both day and night. In addition, PV is often more cost effective than diesel generators and means less CO₂emissions. That has to be good news.

Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Last year EnerTek’s team of international engineers installed a full Victron Energy PV system
to power a large classroom in the Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The system is a pilot with the aim of demonstrating the capabilities of solar PV, as well as educating students and staff as to how solar works.

If the statistics toward the end of last year (over a seven month period in 2015) are anything go by the system is already a success. Below is a screenshot from the VRM (Victron Remote Management) Portal showing the school’s first megawatt milestone.

You can view live system information here: https://vrm.victronenergy.com/site/share/8f0a7806

System installation

Here’s a one minute timelapse video of the installation. Installation and testing of the system took two days in total.

System components

The system has an installed capacity of 2.8 kWp consisting of 10 x 280W-24V Polycrystalline BlueSolar panels using Victron solar charge controllers.

Battery storage consists of 220Ah of Victron Energy AGM batteries (4 X 12V/220Ah), a MultiPlus 48/5000/70-100 Inverter/Charger with a BMV-700 battery monitory and a Color Control GX for on and/or offsite system monitoring and control.

Education

As part of this project is about education, for the students and staff of the school, here is how it works:

The photovoltaic cells capture the sun’s energy and convert it into electricity.
The solar charge controller converts this energy from a high to a low voltage so that it is ready either to go to the batteries or the inverter.
During the day, the inverter takes the electricity from the sun, changes it from DC (direct
current) to AC (alternating current), and sends it to the classroom.
At night, when there is no solar energy available, the inverter provides electricity to the
classroom from the batteries. These are charged using excess solar energy in the daytime.
If there is a prolonged period of heavy clouding or higher than normal electricity use in the
classroom, the grid will be used to supplement the solar energy.