Two men standing beside the completed ground-mounted solar array, panels running away behind them

Deployments

A primary school, and the array that powers it

Ehlekweni Full Primary School · Ekwendeni, north of Mzuzu, Malawi · Over 400 pupils, two sessions a day

Ground-mounted and fenced, on the edge of the school grounds.

A ground-mounted array at a rural primary school north of Mzuzu, where the alternative was no power at all.

The school

Ehlekweni Full Primary School sits at Ekwendeni, north of Mzuzu. It teaches over 400 pupils in two sessions a day, and some of them walk up to fifteen kilometres to get there.

Painted school sign reading Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Ehlekweni F.P. School, Ekwendeni — Ehlekweni Full Primary School, Ekwendeni.

The array

The array is ground-mounted and fenced on the edge of the school grounds, sized for the school rather than for a single building.

Solar at a rural school is not only light in a classroom. It is what makes anything else electrical possible on the site at all.

Pupils in blue uniforms gathered beside a large ground-mounted solar array in the school yard — The array, and the school it powers.

A group of people standing together in front of the fenced solar array at the school — The team at handover.

Inside a classroom at Ehlekweni school with an electric light on, three men at desks under a corrugated roof — A classroom with the lights on.

At a glance

SiteEhlekweni Full Primary School

LocationEkwendeni, north of Mzuzu, Malawi

ScaleOver 400 pupils, two sessions a day

In use sinceFunded

ChargingSolar microgrid

Attachments in use

Solar modules1.3 kW each

The machine on this site

Aftrak AFT-e1. 8 kW, a 5.2 kWh hot-swap battery, a PTO and an ePTO.

View the AFT-e1

More spotlights

All 6 deployments →

Community siteEmisizini, Malawi · 4 modules · 1 tractorThe demonstration site: four solar modules, one community tractor, and the ground to prove both on.Manufacturing hubBlantyre, Malawi · First hub in the regionThe manufacturing hub that makes the rest of it scalable.Mzamo villageMalawi · Array and tractor to followFarmers trained on the ground before anything was installed. The array and the tractor follow.