By: centraljersey.com
WEST WINDSOR – NRG Energy Inc. has pledged to donate $1 million to fund a solar project in a remote region of Haiti.
The donation will fund the project The Sun Lights the Way: Brightening Boucan Carre. The cheap, renewable, and low-maintenance electric power it will provide will be used for fish farming, irrigation pumps, streetlights and schools. If it proves successful, the project will serve as a model for other towns in the country that was ravaged by a devastating earthquake earlier this year.
"Normally we try and keep our charitable giving a little closer to home, where we have facilities and all, but the need of Haiti was just so great and we felt that we could actually make a difference," said NRG CEO David Crane.
"We’re essentially a domestic company, so we feel we can project our expertise a lot more easily into Haiti than into (countries that are further away)."The donation was announced at the Clinton Global Initiative’s meeting last month in New York City. The two groups met through the initiative, which in part matches funding groups with nonprofits.
Solar-generated power is one way of getting around Haiti’s lack of infrastructure, particularly in remote areas like the few towns that make up Boucan Carre, which has a population of about 48,000. The nonprofit Solar Electric Light Fund, which installs solar capability in developing countries, will oversee the project.
SELF will work with Partners in Health, a nonprofit that operates numerous clinics in Haiti and which has used SELF before to generate power in medical clinics. SELF Executive Director Bob Freling said PIH’s expertise in the country should help them avoid some of the pitfalls other nonprofits have faced when entering a country that is known for its complicated bureaucracy.
"Sure we’re going to have challenges working in a post-disaster area," he said. "The good news from our perspective is, because of our partnership with Partners in Health, I think it’s just going to make things a lot easier. … I just feel more comfortable and confident knowing we have access to that network of relationships."
The plan is to put solar arrays in Boucan Carre and to teach locals how to do what little maintenance is required. Mr. Freling said the training involved helps to increase the base of knowledge in the country. So far, SELF has done a quick assessment of the area, and plans to look at it more closely in the next month. Mr. Freling said he expects the installation work to take place in 2011, well ahead of the CGI commitment deadline of April 2012.
The current power grid there, he said, reaches only about 25 percent of the population.
"On the other hand, Haiti is blessed with an abundance of sunshine, so why not tap into that renewable, carbon-free energy, and use it for everything," Mr. Freling said. "We’re trying to demonstrate the viability of a solar electrical system as a cornerstone of their viability going forward."
Mr. Crane, the NRG CEO, said the desire to help Haiti came out of the wish to get more involved in the world.
"With the increasing number of global disasters, when Haiti occurred I think it was the fourth time we did special triple matching for employees that wanted to donate their own money," he said. "We started by doing that, which was becoming sort of depressingly familiar, and we decided this time we wanted to do more."
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