Solar Energy for Reliable Learning

So Learning Doesn’t Depend on the Power Grid

Helping Hands Academy in The Gambia depends on a reliable electricity supply for teaching, digital learning, online examinations and day-to-day office work.

That reliability is currently missing.

Power outages are part of everyday life. At times, the electricity supply can be interrupted for twelve hours, and in particularly difficult situations even for up to 48 hours. For a language school with computer workstations, the consequences are immediate: classes cannot take place as planned, digital learning tools cannot be used and even basic administrative work can come to a standstill.

With our own photovoltaic system with battery storage and a hybrid inverter, we want to significantly reduce this dependency and create an energy supply that our teaching and organisation can rely on.

This is not simply about emergency power. The system is intended to supply as much of our daily operation as possible directly with solar energy.

When a Power Outage Means Classes Cannot Continue

A large part of our educational work is now digital.

Our language school provides computer workstations for language classes, digital learning and online examinations. In addition, laptops, internet and routers, lighting, fans, an air-conditioning unit and other equipment are needed for teaching and office work.

When the electricity goes out, it is therefore not simply a matter of the lights going off.

Computers stop working. Internet access is lost. Digital learning tools cannot be used. Scheduled classes and online examinations are disrupted or have to be postponed.

A reliable electricity supply has therefore become part of the essential educational infrastructure – just like classrooms, computers or teaching materials.

Our Approach: Using Solar Energy Where It Is Needed

Most of Helping Hands Academy’s electricity consumption occurs during the daytime.

This is one of the major advantages of the planned solution: these are also the hours when the highest solar output is available.

The system is therefore deliberately not designed around storing as much energy as possible in a large battery first. Instead, as much of the generated solar electricity as possible should be used directly during school and office hours.

The battery storage complements this concept. It bridges power outages, periods of cloud cover and times when solar production is low or unavailable, helping to ensure that the most important equipment can continue to operate.

The public electricity grid will remain connected, but in future it should ideally be needed only as an additional backup.

Planned Technical Equipment

According to the current planning stage, the system is expected to have a modular design including:

20 solar modules of 550 watts each
11 kWp photovoltaic capacity
3-phase hybrid inverter
approximately 10–12 kW inverter capacity
10 kWh LiFePO₄ battery storage
a battery system that can preferably be expanded modularly
grid-connected operation with backup/off-grid capability
suitable roof substructure or mounting racks
AC and DC surge protection
professional grounding and protection systems
system monitoring
preparation for the future integration of an intelligent energy management system

The final technical design will be determined on the basis of local conditions and the actual load profile.

One point is already important at the planning stage: The system should be able to grow with our needs. Additional photovoltaic modules or further battery storage can be added later if demand increases.

What the System Is Designed to Power

The solar system is designed around the actual requirements of the language school and office.

The main electrical loads include:

approximately 10 desktop PCs with monitors
several laptops
internet and routers
lighting
approximately five fans
one air-conditioning unit
smaller office and teaching equipment

Not all of these devices operate continuously or at the same time.

The computers are particularly needed during classes, online learning and online examinations. The air-conditioning unit is also not considered a permanent base load.

This allows the available energy to be used in a targeted and efficient way.

Using Energy Where It Matters Most

Another part of the concept is the prioritisation of electrical loads.

Computers, internet, lighting and fans have priority, because they are directly needed for teaching and day-to-day operations.

The air-conditioning unit can be used more flexibly – for example, preferably when sufficient solar power is available or when the battery is already well charged.

A future intelligent energy management system could help coordinate generation, consumption and storage even more effectively.

The aim is therefore not to create a rigid emergency power system, but a demand-oriented energy supply for everyday operations.

Lower Running Costs

The current unstable electricity supply does not only create organisational problems. It also results in ongoing costs.

Regularly topping up Cash Power is currently part of normal operations. Electricity is purchased, consumed and then has to be topped up again – in addition to the uncertainty of whether the public grid is available at all.

With the planned photovoltaic system, we want to cover as much of our daily electricity demand as possible directly through our own solar energy.

Every kilowatt-hour that we generate ourselves and use directly does not have to be purchased additionally from the public grid.

The system can therefore do more than improve energy security. It can also significantly reduce Helping Hands Academy’s ongoing energy costs and help preserve funds that can instead be used for education and project work.

And What Happens If Energy Is Left Over?

Our first priority is to achieve the highest possible level of self-consumption. The solar electricity produced should primarily be used where it is generated: in our language school and Helping Hands Academy offices.

If it becomes technically and organisationally possible in the future to feed surplus solar electricity into the public grid, this would be an additional positive benefit of the system.

However, the economic viability of the project does not depend on this.

The priority is to use the available solar energy to stabilise our own operations, reduce electricity drawn from the grid and enable classes to continue even when the public electricity supply is once again unreliable.

Infrastructure That Makes Education Possible

Educational projects are often associated with teachers, learning materials, computers or classrooms.

But all of these things only work if the necessary basic infrastructure is also available.

For our language school, this means something very concrete: Without electricity, reliable digital teaching is not possible.

The planned solar system is therefore not intended simply to produce electricity. It should ensure that existing educational opportunities can actually be used – predictably, reliably and as independently as possible from power outages lasting several hours.

Our Goal

We want to create an energy supply that can grow alongside our educational work and provide reliable school and office operations over the long term.

So that learning does not depend on whether electricity happens to be available.

And so that the sunshine available in The Gambia almost every day can create something that is especially important for our work:

Reliability.

Together for a better future.