Village Power Systems

Village Power can be defined as an Off-Grid energy system that provides power to more than just one residence or business.  Typically, an Apollo Solar Village Power system is used to provide electricity to schools, clinics, and other communal buildings that serve more than a single family.

• There is almost no difference in the equipment or the design of the systems other than perhaps the number of solar modules or the capacity of the batteries.

• The size of the Apollo Solar equipment is dictated by the amount of power required to serve the specific appliances that are plugged in.

Apollo Solar’s Focus on Modular Design

Apollo Solar provides the electronic equipment that is specifically well suited for Village Power, Off-Grid, or Remote Energy systems.  It is the nature of these systems to be located as some distance from population centers which usually have electricity provided by wires from a local utility company, sometimes called the “Grid”.

The more remote the need, the more difficult is the transportation of heavy equipment.  Apollo Solar systems are designed to be made using multiple small modules, each of which can be carried and put in place by one person.  The Apollo Solar equipment does not need concrete pads, cranes, fork-lifts or even large trucks to deliver and complete an installation.

Modularity is a key benefit as the need for electric power grows over time. It is perfectly normal to start with a minimal amount of power to provide simple essential lighting and mobile phone charging.  As other appliances are added, the requirement for power increases.

• The Apollo Solar systems are designed to make it easy to increase the amount of electricity available by simply adding more solar panels, and perhaps batteries and the Apollo Charge Controllers and Inverters.

• Nothing from the very first installation will become obsolete or have to be removed and discarded – simply added on.

Distributed Generation

These Remote Energy systems are good examples of Distributed Generation. Each building that has a need for electricity has a system to generate that electricity by using solar panels and the Apollo Solar equipment with batteries.  There is no need for transmission lines and distribution wiring between buildings, elements that were required by the Utility Grid before before battery-based, solar powered Village Power systems became available.

• The transmission line and power distribution grid adds a great deal of cost which has to be paid for, along with the fuel to generate the electricity.

• Solar Power in a Distributed Generation plan is actually Free Electricity and clearly the wave of the future since it does not generate any greenhouse gases.

Apollo Solar’s Sales Operations Manager traveled with Solar Light for Africa, Ltd. to Uganda where we contributed product and services to a project installing lights in schools and communities in Uganda.