Installation of a solar system to power refrigeration and water distillation in Colombia ›

Fishing is one of the main economic activities of the Wayuu communities living on the shores of the Caribbean Sea in the High Guajira in Colombia. Consequently, the community’s main current energy need is for refrigerating the fish they obtain, consume and sell. A second energy-related need is access to drinking water. To fulfill the energy demand for cooling devices, one of our SEPS projects aims to install PV solar systems in the local area.

At this time, construction of the solar water plant has been nearly completed. The plant contains six solar panels to provide electricity for the hydraulic system, as well as lighting and automation of the plant. A well, situated approximately ten meters from the sea, was constructed and is extracting water to an elevated tank inside the solar plant building. The main component of the new plant consists of 12 distillers which are then converting the salt water into drinking water by evaporation and condensation processes.

Two Steca brand refrigerators, each holding 160 liters, are currently available to the community for making ice to use in the conservation of fish.

You can find some recent photos from the project site below and our corresponding SEPS project page here: Installation of PV solar system to power refrigeration and water distillation (SEPS 8)