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Gaunavou Primary School  (3070 Lautoka-Nadi-Yasawa)

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Works & Maintenance

CO2 & $s

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Charge data

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Procedures

Google map

About

The school has 135 students taught by 6 teachers with classes ranging from K to 8. You will notice in the images and videos impressive concrete school buildings. These were constructed after Cyclone Winston destroyed most of the old wooden school in 2016. So, it was extra appreciated by the community that they now have reliable power in the new buildings.

The school had a generator supplying up to 1-3 hours to the school during the day and some power in the evenings for night study. As well as the direct fuel savings going to education, the cartage cost of the fuel from Lautoka is over half the cost of the fuel itself. Plus one of the teachers came up with the great idea that they can rent out the generator to the villagers when there are functions and that creates even more money for school resources.

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:
Date entered:
Project Funding

The Australian Government – International Climate Change Engagement Program, plus Its Time general donors

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

Gaunavou Primary School

Annual school fuel saving (litres) (1)

800

Annual fuel saving 0 teachers' homes getting solar (litres) (2)

Annual cartage saving (litres) (3)

120

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

960

Fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

28,800

Annual CO2 saving (kgs)

2,448

CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

73,440

Annual AUD saving (8)

$ 3,420

Annual USD saving

$ 2,325

Annual FJD saving

$ 5,130

30 yrs AUD saving

$ 102,600

30 yrs USD saving

$ 68,130

30 yrs FJD saving

$ 150,300

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
08 August 2022

DC Coupled

Inverters

Inverter type

Outback FlexPowerTwo

Charge controller

2 x Outback Flexmax 80

Panels

Panel type

Canadian Solar CS3U-380MS

Number of panels

16

Array (watts)

6080

Mountings

Mountings

Ground mounted

Brand

Clenergy Solar Terrace II

Batteries

Battery type

Simpliphi AmpliPHI 3.8 Lithium Ferro Phosphate

Number of batteries

6

Kilowatt hours

21.5

Batteries mounted

ICS Industries (Enersys) Cabinet


General electrical works

There were only minor electrical works required in the new school buildings. We did not have budget to wire in the teachers's home and that reminds an an objective for the future.


Partners

Solar contractor

CBS Power Solutions

General electric works constractor

CBS Power Solutions

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.

First Name Last Name Position Phone Email FB Note Edited
Charge data
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This data is currently only available to the school and admin.

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Works & Maintenance
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