by Shane Henson — September 21, 2011—SolarWorld, a global solar energy provider, has recently installed a series of high-performance solar panel installations in the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam to counter high power rates.
According to SolarWorld’s management, these sun-washed islands, heavily reliant on burning imported oil products to generate power, are using SolarWorld technology to tap their own plentiful energy resource to produce clean electricity and avoid power prices ranging around 40 cents a kilowatt-hour, compared with the national average of 9.7 cents.
For example, seventeen buildings in American Samoa will soon generate electricity using SolarWorld solar panels, another step in cutting the island’s reliance on burning No. 2 diesel oil for power generation. SolarWorld will supply the 350 kilowatts of solar panels to be installed on 10 schools and seven government buildings on the U.S. territory in the South Pacific. The project will be installed by Island Energy and Marine of Pago-Pago, Samoa.
On the U.S. western Pacific territory of Guam, Scott Hagen of Pacific Solar and Photovoltaic completed a 24.84-kilowatt installation on a library at Guam Community College late last year, then commissioned a 29.4-kilowatt system on a college health education building in May.
Facilities personnel working in the buildings that have benefited from SolarWorld’s partnership should quickly notice significant savings in both energy consumption and costs.
