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Published on February 12, 2008

Thanks to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's project to bring solar-cell technology to remote areas, people in the mountains will no longer be so isolated. With electricity produced from solar-cell technology they have a new source of energy to turn on lights, watch television and access distant satellite-learning systems.

The project is to implement solar-cell technology in 36 learning centres for hilltribe people in three provinces - Tak, Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son - where electricity has not yet reached, said Pairash Thajchayapong, the senior adviser at the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), who also oversees the royal IT project for underprivileged people in remote areas.

In this project, NSTDA's Institute of Solar Energy Technology Development (ISET) will take care of the development of solar-cell technology.

The technology, developed by the institute's researchers, allows people in the community to convert natural sources of solar energy into electricity with an 8-per-cent conversion rate per 0.8 square metres of solar-cell panel.

Pairash said the agency had set aside Bt3.5 million for the whole project, which has been 50-per-cent implemented.

Chatree Tangamatakul, a researcher at ISET, said the institute began to install solar-cell panels at some learning centres last year and it's hoped the implementation would cover all centres by the middle of this year.

Twelve solar-cell panels will be installed at each centre to produce a maximum of 480 watts of electricity. At this rate, the energy can be used for six 11-watt lamps for six hours with an hour of use for a 21-inch television, a VCD player, a communication radio and an amplifier concurrently.

Pairash said that the new solar energy opens a new world for hilltribe people. "The project brings new light to them and opens them to a world of learning."

Having electricity in learning centres will allow hilltribe children to access distant satellite learning programmes which they have never had before, while the community can also have electricity to receive information from the outside world through community-radio broadcasts.

From getting no information from the outside, Chatree said people now had a chance to see the world. "It was really exciting for them from the first day they had electricity," he added.

The solar-cell technology project is hoped to not only bring a new method of electricity generation to improve learning systems in the areas. Pairash said it also covered the development of new educational knowledge, especially in science and technology fields.

"Since the use of solar-cell technology requires maintenance after implementation, we had the idea to train local people in solar-cell technology so they could take care of the generating system themselves," Pairash said.

NSTDA's president Sakarindr Bhumiratana said the agency had worked with six other organisations related to education and energy - the Office of Basic Education Commission, the Office of the Non-Formal Education Commission, the Vocational Education Commission, the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology, the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency and King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi - to conduct a three-year pilot project to transfer knowledge on solar-cell technology to hilltribe people.

"We believe this collaboration will develop knowledge in the communities, especially in science and technology. As the solar-cell technology is installed in the area, it's easier to teach children with a real system," he said.

Children, he added, would be able to see how the technology worked and how the solar cell converted sunlight into electricity. They could also see the electricity-generation process in action and understand more about physics theory.

To develop a better learning system, Pairash added the project also included the development of a solar-cell technology course for hilltribe children in schools.

"This will develop knowledge in the community and push them to become more self reliant, taking care of the technology and maintenance by themselves."

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation