07/08/2013
CREEC’s solar PV department has introduced solar clubs to schools through the Solar Lamps for Health and Wealth campaign with the aim of promoting the use of solar lamps over other rudimentary and unhealthy ways of lighting for reading purposes among students.
The solar clubs have been established in four institutions so far and fifteen solar PV lamps have been given to each of these clubs memorandums of understandings with school managements. According to the understanding, CREEC will in turn collect data about the quality of the various lamps that have been given out to students for research and product assessment purposes of Uganda’s solar PV market.
The centre is also interested in researching about the functionality of the different lamps, their durability and user behaviour on the market today.
The clubs have been introduced to Sacred Heart Girls School in Gulu, Moroto High School, Kaliro Teacher’s College of Kaliro District and Green Valley High School of the Kyebando neighbourhood in Kampala.
Some of the lamps that have been given to the school solar club include d.light S 10, firefly TM Mobiles, SUN KING Pro, ASE SOLAR, Sundial TSL01, and others.
How it works:
After CREEC has established a club and a patron has been elected by the club team members, they all agree on a schedule under which the lamps are going to be used. CREEC issues out copies of a questionnaire each user is supposed to fill out every time they borrow a lamp from the patron.
We hope that students can learn and appreciate the goodness of using clean solar energy as compared to using kerosene lamps and tadoobas for reading at night. They can also share their experience and promote these lamps at household levels.
This campaign started in March 2013 and it is part of the five year solar technologies project under the Presidential Initiative Programme implemented by the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology in Makerere University.
Other activities that have been part of this campaign are awareness creation and promotional activities in local markets surrounding Kampala surburbs of Kitintale, Makerere where CREEC has teamed up with distributors to promote solar PV technology.