Project Leogane Goes Solar!

Project Leogane is now being powered by solar energy, thanks to the relentless determination of a dedicated volunteer.

Before coming to volunteer with All Hands last May, Daryl DeJoy saw that solar panels were on our wish list. Daryl, who has been in the solar energy business for 23 years and owns Penobscot Solar Design, asked solar companies REC Solar to donate solar panels and Outback Power to donate charge controllers and safety disconnects. We thank them for their generous donation.

Daryl arrived in Haiti with more than 300 pounds of equipment, ready to install the new solar panels. But after two weeks of waiting, they never came and Daryl had to return home. For the next 10 months, the solar panels remained in “customs limbo,” as Daryl described it.

“I even contacted my senator who’s on the ways and means committee,” he said. “I was very persistent, maybe overly annoying persistent,” he said. But it paid off.

All Hands’ Stefanie Chang, who had been working with Daryl to get the solar panels to base, received an e-mail two weeks ago saying she just needed one more letter showing the value of the panels. Later that day Stef e-mailed him saying she had the solar panels and Daryl immediately offered to come back to Leogane and install them.

“Within an hour of knowing the panels were on base, I went straight to kayak.com and bought my ticket to Haiti,” he said.

Daryl spent five days on base setting up the solar panels and making sure they properly work. Thanks to his efforts we no longer have to run on a generator, which saves us significant money on gas and helps lower our carbon footprint. We do still fire up the generator for specific things like powering local welders or helping to run the bar next door, and we’re looking into ways to adjust usage there as well.

“Now that the solar panels are in, the money that would’ve been used to buy very expensive gasoline can be put toward the relief effort,” Daryl said. “It’s been very fulfilling to see the process through to the end.”