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Sawau District School  (1727 Suva)

About

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Specifications

Works & Maintenance

CO2 & $s

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Charge data

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About

The school on Beqa Island has 5 teachers delivering classes for 87 students from kindergarten to year 8.

Prior to solar, the school used a portable generator for limited electricity during the day. Teachers’ homes, hostels and accommodation for boarders' families (rostered weekly to cook for the boarders) used a combination of small portable solar, kerosene lanterns or small generators. The new solar system provides 24-hour power to all the facilities and gives the school the valued option of night study.

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.

For sustainability

Our projects

Plastic Pick up Activity

Started: 2023 Status: Ongoing
One or more of our team spends at least 15 minutes each week (or at least one hour each month) picking up plastics in our area. So, we keep our small part of the earth as free of plastic as possible - it's a small action we do to protect marine and other wildlife. We hope all businesses and organisations in the world will join us in doing the same.

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Visit our project on:

Carbon Dioxide and Financial Savings
Document
Th school has a 3kva generator that is used two days per week and consumes approximately 90 litres of fuel per month (includes contribution to boat fuel to collect the fuel from the mainland) So the solar system will save in the order of FJD300 per month that can be diverted to education resources. (fuel consumption and costs will be confirmed/clarified at the time of installation).

Sawau District School

Annual school fuel saving (litres) (1)

1,080

Annual fuel saving 5 teachers' homes getting solar (litres) (2)

250

Annual cartage saving (litres) (3)

162

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

1,242

Fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

37,260

Annual CO2 saving (kgs)

3,167

CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

95,013

Annual AUD saving (8)

$ 3,984

Annual USD saving

$ 2,709

Annual FJD saving

$ 5,976

30 yrs AUD saving

$ 119,520

30 yrs USD saving

$ 81,270

30 yrs FJD saving

$ 179,280

Total of All It's Time Solar Schools

Total annual school fuel saving (litres)

20,540

Total annual fuel saving 91 teachers' homes getting solar (litres)

4,150

Total annual cartage saving (litres)

3,081

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

27,886

Total fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

836,580

Total annual CO2 saving (kgs)

71,103

Total CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

2,133,277

Total annual AUD saving (8)

$ 78,672

Total annual USD saving

$ 53,489

Total annual FJD saving

$ 118,008

Total 30 yrs AUD saving

$ 2,360,160

Total 30 yrs USD saving

$ 1,578,540

Total 30 yrs FJD saving

$ 3,482,640

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
10 June 2023

DC Coupled

Inverters

Inverter type

Victron MultiPlus-II/5000

Charge controller

Victron MPPT 250/85 & 150/35

Panels

Panel type

Jinko Tiger 415

Number of panels

16

Array (watts)

6640

Mountings

Mountings

Ground mounted

Brand

Clenergy Solar Terrace II

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

There are three pillar boxes at the school that were used to accept power from a village generator (was only for a few hours at night, but that generator failed 7 years ago). On inspection this distribution system, after a few repairs, is up to standard and is acceptable to leave in place. Although at the buildings, the distribution boards all needed replacement and new internal wiring was installed in all classrooms, hostels, teachers' homes and facilities for the families that stay during the week to cook for the boarders.

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

Solar Fiji

General electric works constractor

Solar Fiji


Contacts
Document

Enter all contacts e.g School Manager, Head Teacher, Principal. The more the better.
If a contact changes, for example the principal, edit the old record to show the new person’s details.

New First Name Last Name Position Phone Email FB Note Edited
Charge data
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Works & Maintenance
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