PLEASE NOTE. This is a very early launch of a platform designed to update stakeholders and observers of Its Time solar schools’ projects. Current, historical and up-coming projects will be gradually added. As will the various information panels below. It is a considerable development project and we appreciate your patience as it evolves over the coming weeks. Almost certainly there will be a bug or two along the way - should you notice any issues or have ideas to improve the platform, your message is appreciated message via: iitime.org/contact-us

Ratu Lalabalavu Secondary  (2581 Nadroga-Navosa)

About

Docs & Links

Specifications

Works & Maintenance

CO2 & $s

Contacts

Charge data

Term Reports

Procedures

About


On Malolo Island in the north west of Fiji, 10 teachers provide classes for 60 students in years 9, 10, 11 and 12.

To build a relationship with the village a resort developer installed a solar system at the school in 2020. The panel structure was good quality and with plenty of generation power, but unfortunately the inverter/battery system was incorrect and the batteries failed within a year causing a safety incident. The inverter also failed. We are using the existing panels and installed a new inverter/battery configuration.

FTR the resort was not built, and the developers left the country after being exposed for illegal dredging the nearby coral reef to create better access to the proposed resort.

A donor also supplied a new LED data projector and 20 kgs of library books focused on sustainability.

School Role & Facilities
Students:
Teachers:
Classrooms:
Kindergarten:
Offices:
Library/computer area:
Teachers homes in the school grounds:
Boarders (live-in students):
Hostels (Boarding houses):
Dining rooms:
Comments and other bulidings:
Date entered:
Project Funding

Donor anonymous.

Our school commits to have a group of students spend at least 15 minutes, most weeks, picking up plastics. So, we keep our small patch on the earth as free of plastic as possible - its a small action we do to protect marine and other wildlife. We hope all schools in the world join us in doing the same.

Carbon Dioxide and Financial Savings
Document

Ratu Lalabalavu Secondary

Annual school fuel saving (litres) (1)

2,400

Annual fuel saving 7 teachers' homes getting solar (litres) (2)

350

Annual cartage saving (litres) (3)

360

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

3,110

Fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

93,300

Annual CO2 saving (kgs)

7,930

CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

237,915

Annual AUD saving (8)

$ 7,020

Annual USD saving

$ 4,773

Annual FJD saving

$ 10,530

30 yrs AUD saving

$ 210,600

30 yrs USD saving

$ 143,190

30 yrs FJD saving

$ 315,900

Total of All It's Time Solar Schools

Total annual school fuel saving (litres)

21,580

Total annual fuel saving 94 teachers' homes getting solar (litres)

4,300

Total annual cartage saving (litres)

3,289

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

29,169

Total fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

875,070

Total annual CO2 saving (kgs)

74,373

Total CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

2,231,424

Total annual AUD saving (8)

$ 82,738

Total annual USD saving

$ 56,253

Total annual FJD saving

$ 124,107

Total 30 yrs AUD saving

$ 2,482,140

Total 30 yrs USD saving

$ 1,687,590

Total 30 yrs FJD saving

$ 3,723,210

Assumptions

Fuel cost in the islands in AUD/litre (5)

2.00

Fuel cartage consideration % (3)

0.15

Annual fuel consumption per teacher's home wired (litres) (2)

50.00

Annual generator maintenance consideration AUD (6)

1500.00

CO2 produced per litre of fuel burned (kgs) (7)

2.55

AUD to USD conversion rate used

0.68

AUD to FJD conversion rate used

1.50

Notes

(1) This is the annual fuel consumption based on reporting from the school at the time of school survey and affirmed at the time of installation. It refers to direct fuel use by the school, not including teachers' homes.

(2) The fuel consumption of teachers' homes varies considerable between homes and over time. Their sources of energy varies from their own small generators to shared generators, still some use kerosene for lighting and some small solar (often failing) for lights and charging. Recently on Beqa Island two of the 7 households at one school were each using 10 litres of fuel per week and some were using very little. So, we have chosen the conservative underestimate of each household saving of 2 litres per week (approx. 5 kgs of CO2).

(3) Most schools have a cost to get fuel to the school - usually small boats and car/truck on the mainland. The costs vary from small amounts to some schools where the cartage cost is almost the same as the cost of the fuel itself. The cartage consideration (dollar and carbon cost) is a percentage of the total fuel consumption, because it varies widely from school to school we have chosen quite a conservative estimate.

(4) Includes cartage and teachers' home consumption estimate that therefore contribute to the total CO2 saving. But we do not include the teachers home in the financial saving - rather we just refer to the savings from the school generator.

(5) This is the current published diesel price in Fiji presented in AUD. Often the islands pay a higher price, but that is not factored in, so generally the price will be a small under estimation.

(6) Generators often require repairs and eventually replacement. That cost varies significantly from school to school, so a conservative value is applied to represent this component of cost/saving for all schools. It is not possible to calculate that accurately for every school, hence the estimate across all.

(7) Burning diesel produces CO2 at a rate of 2.68 kgs/litre, whereas petrol produces it at a rate of 2.31 kgs/litre. We have chosen 2.55 as the approximate for our calculations because there is more diesel used than petrol in the school generators.

(8) The fuel savings in the teachers' homes are not included in the calculation of financial savings for the school. Although teachers are asked to make a small contribution each term (FJD70) for their now 24-hour power and this goes to the school to buy more education resources.

Specifications
Document
20 June 2023

To build a relationship with the village a resort developer installed a solar system at the school in 2020. The panel structure was good quality and well enough power for the school. Unfortunately the inverter/battery system was incorrect and the batteries were damaged within a year and inverter failed. So, we are used the existing good quality panels and installing a new inverter/battery configuration.


DC Coupled

Inverters

Inverter type

Victron MultiPlus-II/5000

Charge controller

Victron MPPT 250/100

Panels

Panel type

Yingli 255

Number of panels

24

Array (watts)

6120

Mountings

Mountings

Roof mounted

Brand

Using existing mounts.

Batteries

Battery type

Simpliphi PHI 3.8 Lithium Ferro Phosphate

Number of batteries

6

Kilowatt hours

22.8

Batteries mounted

Simpliphi Boss 6 Cabinet


General electrical works

Most of the school has quality electrical wiring and only a few general repairs were needed. But four teachers quarters needed new wiring as the exiting was not to standard. Also, a new circuit was be laid to the school generator for back up.

4 amp breakers are installed into the teachers' homes - this limits appliances to a maximum 960 watts and capacity to use modest sized electrical appliances, but not electric cook tops etc. That power limiting strategy means effective use of a reasonably sized school solar system and all in the school community are very happy to have this balanced level of 24-hour power supply.


Partners

Solar contractor

Clay Engineering

General electric works constractor

Extreme Electrical


Contacts
Document
First Name Last Name Position Phone Email FB Note Edited
Note
Note
Note
Charge data
Don't have login?
Document

This data is currently only available to the school and admin.

  Event

Works & Maintenance
Term Report