WITH Vanuatu in ruins, New England Solar owner Rob Taber has united Australia’s renewable energy businesses to bring power back to the devastated archipelago nation.
Mr Taber wants the country’s solar businesses to donate any out-of-date panels to return power to homes.
The Solar Energy Industry Association will contact about 350 member businesses and their suppliers to raise at least 500 solar panels which will help power cyclone-ravaged areas of Vanuatu.
Mr Taber said it wouldn’t be a quick fix and anticipated they would be sending solar panels to Vanuatu for at least 12 months once they started.
While many modern solar panels are 24 volts, Mr Taber said 12 volt panels would be ideal to start with, since many simple solar systems in Vanuatu would only be using 12 volt batteries.
Three years ago Mr Taber helped install almost 60 solar panels in an orphanage in Fiji.
“We got them hot water, [there are] 36 kids in the orphanage and they all have a hot shower every day now,” he said.
