Latest from Haiti: Reliable Energy Becoming a Reality for Haitians

Energy Week in Haiti was a great event. It was held at the Historical Sugarcane Park in Tabarre which was a beautiful site. Every day of the three day conference was so well attended that there was not enough seating for the attendees in the conference room. It was great to meet so many people that are making huge strides to bring alternative energy to Haiti. As always, the IEEE/Sirona Rural Electricity Program was well received. Even the President of the utility asked us to place a unit in his home town.

The new Secretary of Energy, Dr. Rene Jean Jumeau, arranged the conference. Haiti has established its strategic plan for energy throughout the country. The larger cities will be handled by the national utility, the towns will utilize micro grids, and the villages will be lit by Sirona's model (solar-based generating stations that recharge home kits for customers). Quite literally, this country is going to be lit and a great amount of the energy supplied will be from alternative energy sources.

We are actively engaged in organizing Haitian assembly and local suppliers of our equipment, the next step will be hiring and training a work force and get our units rolling out to villages. The IEEE has donated an additional nine units, so we have a lot to do. I am thrilled and amazed by the rapid progress that the Haitian administration is making in this area.

President Martelly set energy as a very high priority for his administration and the speed with which this is coming together is exciting. I spent the morning looking at assembly facilities and met great suppliers at the conference. It is all truly coming together.

As if that isn't enough exciting news, Sirona has applied for an Intel Foundation grant to fund equipment for tele-education and tele-medicine in the villages where our units are co-located with schools. We won't know before the end of the year, but it is a very exciting proposal. We have created the very unique situation by placing reliable energy in these remote villages. Perhaps the children there will be learning on computers, and the adults gaining access to training and information. Like everything we do, the element of sustainablility is built into the model. The facilities can also generate revenue by operating at certain hours as a cyber cafe or providing entertainment like broadcasts of soccer games or movies. Exciting things, life changing things, become possible with energy.