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Salialevu Primary School  (1261 Cakaudrove)

About

Docs & Links

Specifications

Works & Maintenance

CO2 & $s

Contacts

Charge data

Term Reports

Procedures

Google map

About

Salia Levu is the most remote village on Taveuni Island and has 37 students with classes from years 1 to 8.

At the time of installation the school had a small diesel generator that would run during school days on a needs basis. It also ran for an average of three hours in the evenings to supply the teachers’ quarters. Otherwise and when fuel is low the teachers used kerosene lanterns. At the time of installation the school received 17 electronic tablets which was a nice coincidence with the new 24 hour power.

The year following installation the school was hit by cyclone Winston and sustained severe damage. The solar panels held up well but the system wiring was stripped out and the batteries damaged. We repaired the system, but it continued to have intermittent problems. When the school was rebuilt the inverters and batteries were moved to the new building, but the positioning of the building meant that the ground mount solar array was in the way of the new entrance to the school - that and being a small system we decided in 2023 to install new larger set of roof mounted panels and new Simpliphi Lithium batteries.

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

Rotary Club of Taveuni, the Middendorp Foundation, the Whitelaw family and many direct 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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Carbon Dioxide and Financial Savings
Document

Salialevu Primary School

Annual school fuel saving (litres) (1)

700

Annual fuel saving 3 teachers' homes getting solar (litres) (2)

150

Annual cartage saving (litres) (3)

105

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

990

Fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

29,700

Annual CO2 saving (kgs)

2,524

CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

75,735

Annual AUD saving (8)

$ 3,180

Annual USD saving

$ 2,162

Annual FJD saving

$ 4,770

30 yrs AUD saving

$ 95,400

30 yrs USD saving

$ 63,420

30 yrs FJD saving

$ 139,950

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
01 November 2015

We installed a smaller system in 2015, the year before Tropical Cyclone Winston devastated the school. The inside components were moved twice in the school rebuild and the system never really performed as well as hoped. So, in August 2023, we used the exisiting Sunny Island remote inverter, but replaced everything else a new.


AC Coupled

Inverters

Inverter type

SMA SI4.4

Grid-tie inverter

Sunny Boy 5

Panels

Panel type

Jinko Tiger 415

Number of panels

10

Array (watts)

4150

Mountings

Mountings

Roof mounted

Brand

Clenergy PV-ezRACK Solar Roof

Batteries

Battery type

Simpliphi PHI 3.8 Lithium Ferro Phosphate

Number of batteries

5

Kilowatt hours

19.0

Batteries mounted

Simpliphi Boss 6 Cabinet


General electrical works

The new school building was only partly wired and the teachers' home had no wiring. School wiring was completed and a 150m circuit was laid to the homes and they were wired with new LED lighting and power points.

4 amp breakers are installed into the teachers' homes - this limits appliances to less than 1000 watts (so no electric cook tops etc., but capacity to use modest sized electrical appliances). That power limiting strategy means effective use of a reasonably sized school solar system and all in the community are very happy to have this level of 24-hour power supply.


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.

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