Energy for Refugees installs solar panels on Lesbos

Energy for Refugees is an initiative of the TU Delft Energy Club. The Energy Club is the student section of the Delft Energy Initiative and brings together students with a passion for sustainable energy. The goal of Energy for Refugees is to bring sustainable, reliable and cheap energy to the people who need it the most. 

In July, a team of seven international students from the Sustainable Energy Systems degree programme travelled to the PIKPA refugee camp on Lesbos. This project was supervised by Olindo Isabella from the department of Photovoltaic Materials and Devices.

The students installed a sustainable energy system, based on solar panels, on the roof of the school in Kara Tepe. Kara Tepe is a refugee camp near Mytilini housing 1,500 refugees, including many families and children.

The team also took account of the social and economic aspects of the project. Electricity is very important for meeting the basic needs of the refugees, such as food, hygiene, lighting and heating. The team didn't just provide the energy supply, they also got the refugees in the camp involved by training them in how the system works and how to maintain it, so that the camp can operate more autonomously and be less dependent on the surrounding municipalities.

In September 2018, a new student team will start work to continue this project.

More information about Energy for Refugees.