Sunday June 19 – Monday June 20, 2016
The team has arrived safely in Zambia and spent a night in Lusaka at a backpackers hostel recovering from long flights and preparing to travel to the Southern Province. We were able to arrange for a minibus to pick us up at the hostel and drive us directly to our new accommodations in Siavonga, which will be our base for the remainder of the project. After a picturesque drive complete with rolling hills and terrific views of Lake Kariba, we had a few hours to relax; so naturally the team spent their time testing the Data Acquisition System (DAS), reviewing the energy kiosk business model, and refining our schedule for the remainder of the week. We were joined for dinner by Karim Debbah, our local contact at GE who has been immensely helpful in planning this project, and Lucy and Reynard Pieterse, the owners of the Green Trust, Ltd, nonprofit organization who will be managing the energy kiosk. The project will begin in earnest tomorrow morning when we travel to Chalokwa to meet the Suntech solar panel team and begin the installation of the system.
