Today we welcomed the arrival of SunTech and the solar panels for the energy kiosk!!
The kiosk was a busy site today, with SunTech employees performing the solar panel installation and community members laying the concrete floor and plastering the external walls of the kiosk. In addition, a trench was dug to one of the neighboring churches in order to run electrical wiring there. The KWH team was also hard at work with training, interviews, data logger setup, and coordination.
The energy kiosk also hired its first two employees! Mike Zulu will be the kiosk manager. He was trained for the majority of the day on the business operations, cell phone and battery box charging, and proper record keeping. A night watchman was also hired for security measures.
We celebrated the solar installation with pizza for the KWH team, Likonge, and Sarah and Albert- two volunteers for Lichi Community Solutions who have been a big help this week.
The rest of the week will continue with training, and wiring of the kiosk components (maximum power point tracker, system batteries, inverter, charge controller, and meters). Meanwhile, four team members will depart for Siavonga in southern Zambia for an assessment trip for a future project.
