As part of an EU funded program aimed at supporting the Maldives to formulate and implement a sustainable energy policy, a PV-diesel hybrid pilot project was installed on the Island of Mandhoo, located in the western part of the South Ari atoll, about 100 km South-West of Male’. The PV system was intended to be used during daytime while the diesel generator provided power during night time. The changing from one system to the other was handled manually.

Unfortunately, soon after installation the renewable power from the sun was not used as the system was not able to meet the daytime demand. Thus the 12kW of PV power remained unused for nearly 2 years.

Our involvement

Once we heard of this situation, we approached the Maldivian Ministry of Environment, Energy and Water with a project to connect the PV system directly to the electricity distribution network of Mandhoo. The project involved converting a stand-alone PV system to a grid-connected PV system.

The 12kW PV system that was lying idle now provides around 50% of Mandhoo’s daytime electricity demand.