The Chamalire village school in Malawi now has an electricity supply thanks to a project implemented by the Zikomo Africa NGO.

This project has made it possible to improve not only the students’ possibilities of studying but also the quality of life and working conditions of the teaching staff, as they now have light and electricity in their homes.

Until now, neither the school nor any other building in Chamalire had access to the grid or any decentralised source of power. The village is located in a rural area close to the parish of Benga in the central part of the country.

Thanks to this project, implemented together with global power technology group Ingeteam, nine teachers’ homes and one girls’ dormitory, built so that young girls no longer need to face the dangers of travelling a number of kilometres to their home villages at night, are also now benefiting from this clean energy system.

The project installation consists of 20 solar panels which generate 7.2kW of solar power, and a lithium battery energy storage system with a capacity of 19.3kWh. The Ingeteam hybrid inverter, equipped with an EMS energy management system, is responsible for controlling the entire energy supply to the installation.

The INGECON Sun Storage 6TL M inverter, with a rated power output of 6kW, features two photovoltaic inputs for up to 11.5kW of solar power, and a battery input that is valid for high voltage and low voltage batteries alike.

Although in this case, the inverter is functioning as a stand-alone system, it can also operate in grid-connected systems in either self-consumption or back-up mode.

Ingeteam has highlighted the good work of the Zikomo Africa NGO in Malawi and the ease with which this collaboration has been performed.