PAWARIM KOMUNITI – SOLAR PROJECT

About the Project

TCA has established a new project called ‘Kamapim Pawa in the Torricelli Mountain Range’ in partnership with Australia’s new Off-Grid Electrification Program, Pawarim Komuniti. Kamapim Pawa will provide benefits to all households within the project area.

Solar electrification has been identified by the TCA villages as a priority project for many years. TCA has supplied many staff with Solar units and TCA Base-Lumi is powered mostly by Solar.

Ever since working with these remote villages many people have said “mi les long stap long tudak”, which means ‘I am sick of living in the dark’. Imagine what life would be like without a flick of a switch. This project will surely change the lives of many people as every house-hold will receive their own solar lighting system supplied by our project partner Solar Solutions.

A total of 350 solar street lights will be distributed throughout the villages to increase the village lighting, improving access to village facilities and benefiting everyone. Women and children will benefit considerably and will feel safe in walking within their villages at night.  Village solar street lights have long been supported by Perth Zoo since 2019 and also partner with us to implement this project. 

TCA is receiving financial support from the Aitape/Lumi Member, the Honourable Patrick Pruaitch, to assist in the this project as well as support from the Segre Foundation supporting the employment of the CEO and COO in Australia.

Pawarim Komuniti is funded by the PNG-Australia Partnership to support access to clean energy in rural and remote communities in PNG through partnerships that promote energy innovation. The program is part of Australia’s commitment under the PNG Electrification Partnership to help PNG meet the target of connecting 70% of the country to electricity by 2030.

What we have achieved so far

• In February 2022, a film crew documented the implementation of this project
• TCA successfully secured an extension of this project to incorporate 100 new villages into the project thanks to the support of DFaT. A total of 5,315 solar household lights will be delivered and installed by July 2023
• Solar Solutions have ordered and purchased the new solar lights for households and they are in transit from China to Papua New Guinea
• We have purchased and delivered all of the solar lighting equipment from Solar Solutions to the villages
• A total of 350 solar street lights have been delivered to Lumi with 347 street lights installed into 47 villages
• A total of 2690 household lighting units have been installed into 2690 houses from 47 villages
• All staff have participated in training of DFAT policies relevant to the project – including COVID19 protocols. Chief Operating Officer Mrs Jean Thomas created a Corona Virus educational video in Tok Pisin that has had over 7000 views on social media.  The TCA Board has also approved of a new Epidemic Pandemic Policy
• With the skills of a technical expert, TCA has successfully developed a ‘Solar survey app’ used on smart phones to conduct household surveys and collect data which will be uploaded to our online portal called “Mother Nature”. This app is able to take Geo-referenced photos of the household, record household members and current lighting systems used in the households
• TCA staff, Project Officers and Research Officers, have all been trained, remotely, on how to use the ‘Solar survey app’. They have taken to “Mother Nature” and have successfully uploaded more than 2,532 household surveys
• Results from this app and the 2,532 surveys collected by our staff show that villages use these sources for household lighting:

• 6% of households use solar operated torches
• 73% of households use battery operated torches
• 63% of households use traditional bamboo torches
• 85% of households use a solar 50 Watt panel
• 73% of households use a 100 Watt panel
• 74% of households use firewood for lighting
• 43% of households use kerosene lamps

The collection of Free, Prior, Informed consent agreement to participate in the project have been collected via the app from every household. This ensures households are agreeable to pay 10% of the cost of the solar units ensuring the lighting unit is their system not TCA’s or DFAT’s.  All solar units have been paid for by the households contributing a total of K201,750 towards the project.

Upcoming Activities 2022

• Our app developer has created a new solar survey app to compliment the first solar survey app which will help us assess the impact of the project. TCA is waiting for the final approval from DFaT before rolling it out into the villages. Hopefully we can start by August/September 2022
• By October we aim to have the collection and downloading of data collected from the ‘Solar survey app’ with 100 new villages and existing villages to assess the results of this project
• Once this is complete we will focus on delivering a further 5,315 household lights to the 100 new villages.  Solar lights are expected to be delivered to PNG by the end of September 2022.   Transport to the village areas and TCA Base-Lumi will begin before Christmas
• Once this is complete we will focus on reporting until the project ends in July 2022