PV System Yandup Island Lodge, Panama

Project description

Yandup Island is one of the islands of the Kuna Yala ( San Blas ) archipelago along the
Caribbean coast of Panama. Most of the 350 islands of the archipelago are not electrified.
Yandup Island was not habited until a few years ago and now mainly serves as a tourist
destination with the Yandup Island Lodge. There was a diesel generator to serve electric
loads in the kitchen house before. A 3kW PV system was installed in 2011/12 to
serve basic loads in te kitchen, administration, the staff accomodation and lights in the
tourist bungalows.

 

Why was PV selected?

High solar irradiation at the coast of Panama is ideal to run PV Off-Grid systems.
The diesel generator that had been serving the loads in the kitchen before, was running
every day for several hours thus consuming high amounts of diesel. The diesel had been
regularly deliverd from the neighbour islands with high costs. The PV system now serves the whole island with reliable power throughout the year.

 

Special challenges

Yandup Island is difficult to reach. All equipment had to be delivered by plane to the
neighbouring larger island Ukupseni (Playón Chico). Then the equipment was shipped
with a small speed boat to Yandup Island. As soon as the PV system was installed, it
turned out to be a reliable solution to serve all necessary loads on the island!

Location

  • Yandup Island, San Blas, Panama

Project participants

  • Phaesun SA Panama

End user

  • Hotel staff and tourists

Installation

  • 10/2011

Size

  • 3 kWp

System components

  • 40 ET solar modules monocristalline
    75 Wp
  • 1 Outback Solar Charge Controller FM 80
  • 1 Outback System FW250, 3.6 kVA,
    120 VAC/60 Hz
  • 1 system controller MATE and communication manager HUB4
  • 1 AC distribution
  • 32 Trojan Batteries 6 V/225 Ah,
    total 48 V/900 Ah
  • Mounting equipment and accessories