Solar power lets poorer communites watch the World Cup

Some of the members of South Africa's poorest communities will be able to watch the World cup matches without the threat of power cuts. The Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha, has become the first community in Southern Africa to have Sun-TV.

The movement was started by the “streetfootballworld” organisation, in co-operation with Fifa, and is part of the “20 Centres for 2010” Fifa campaign. The campaigns goal is to create 20 centres of hope to promote public health, education and football in disadvantaged communities across Africa.

The station in the centre includes a television, a Dstv decoder and DVD player. Whilst the children played soccer outside, the adults were learning the intricacies of computers and using appliances that are powered by solar energy.

The centre is also home to Grassroots Soccer, a local non profit organisation. Which uses soccer to challenge various social issues. Including HIV and Aids, discrimination and education barriers. It is one of four centres being set up in disadvantaged communities of the Western Cape, the others being at Gansbaai, Ashbury and Phillipi.

Two 260Ah batteries and an inverter built into a cabinet power the station. They are charged via 300 Watts of Solar modules and monitored by a charge controller.

Gregor Kuepper, the managing director of SolarWorld Africa, said Sun-TV stations were specifically installed in communities where there was no lighting, and to limit the expenses of poorer communities.

The stations will be maintained by SolarWorld for five years and will also be used to watch educational programmes and for other social activities.

Kuepper said that the station had to be in a community which would take responsibility for the equipment, was committed to promoting soccer and education, and would continue to look after it after the five year period contract ended.

The project, which includes the instillation of 36 Sun-TV stations in southern Africa, comes at a cost of R2.5 Million.