Phuket Lifestyle: Nothing but blue skies for Yaowawit School

PHUKET: Yaowawit School and Lodge is getting greener with a new solar PV field donated by solar solution and service provider Conergy, The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to Thailand and freight-forwarding company Logwin Air + Ocean (Thailand) Ltd.

The school celebrated the installation with a presentation to students, faculty and the community.

“We were very happy when we heard about the opportunity to install a solar panel field in Yaowawit, since it will not only give our students the opportunity to learn about how solar energy functions, but it will reduce our energy costs for the next 25 years.

“The Yaowawit School is very grateful for this generous donation. We are proud to be the first school in the Phang Nga province, maybe even in all of Thailand, to have its own solar panel field.

“We will do our best to make it a learning center for both our students and those in the
neighboring communities and it will serve as a role model for others,” said Yaowawit School headmaster Kunchana Mailaeaid.

With the launch, the Yaowawit School will have 324 solar modules adjacent to the school covering nearly 476 square meters and producing 227,400 watts of power per day. Construction on the solar field began in June this year. The school anticipates using the energy to operate lights, air-conditioning, computers and other appliances and reduce its energy cost by 50 per cent.

The Yaowawit solar installation is the result of a partnership between the German government and German private enterprise.

The Yaowawit School and Lodge is a private charitable boarding school, which started educating students in 2006 and was inaugurated by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Sakri Sirindhorn.

Currently, the school educates and provides shelter to 110 students, that come from very poor and broken families or suffered consequences from the 2004 tsunami.

The school teaches students life skills, such as English, hospitality and farming, in order to be able to break the circle of poverty.

The school’s aim is to one day become self-sufficient by leveraging the small lodge and the 70 rai large farm.

Today the school still depends on donations and sponsorship and offers many programs to help supporters get involved.

For more information, or to donate to the school visit: yaowawit.com.