Eradicating Energy Poverty in Haiti

When Hurricane Matthew made landfall in Haiti via Les Anglais, EarthSpark's team, grid, and customers were at the very center of the storm. In the days before the storm, we prepared the grid the best we could. We let the community know in advance that we would have to shut down the grid so that they could charge their phones and radios, we placed sandbags at the generation site, shut off the grid and found safe spaces for our staff. Aside from preparing immediately before the storm hit, we had built a high-quality system. Our solar panel array was rated for a category 4 storm.  We had also made sure not to connect houses to the grid that were in precarious locations. One area of town that we didn’t connect to the grid, Bo Lagon, was sadly wiped away before the storm even hit.

After three long days of radio silence, we were able to re-establish communication with our team and confirmed that all EarthSpark and Enèji Pwòp team members were safe and accounted for.  Most Les Anglais homes and businesses were destroyed or severely damaged. Trees have been reduced to stumps and many crops lost. We don't yet know the full toll of casualties. So far, people are taking the situation in stride, sheltering where they can, and relying on well water.

The EarthSpark microgrid fared comparatively well. We lost ~40% of the solar panels, but the generation system is largely intact. Most of the homes and businesses connected to the grid were destroyed, so we will plan in tandem with reconstruction efforts to re-establish the poles-and-wires distribution system of electricity for the town.

EarthSpark works on energy, not relief. So in the days immediately after the storm we reached out to various relief organizations to offer to retool the generation system quickly to support their relief work near the generation site. However, in the hierarchy of needs in the aftermath, electricity wasn’t high up there. Food, shelter, and clean water were at the top of the list. We kept asking what people needed us to power but no one was biting. After about a week the community let us know that they needed cold drinks and a way to watch football matches, which was a welcome sign that life was slowly going back to normal.

As relief took place, we saw how lack of infrastructure and planning – poor roads and lack of stored food supplies to name a few, made reaching those in need more difficult. To break from the difficulties of systemic poverty, infrastructure is so crucial. We see integrated electrification as part of a bigger picture of 'integrated economic and environmental resilience' that links to other sectors like roads/transportation, communications, and building materials/practices.  We need to be building sustainable, long-term infrastructure, including sustainable energy services that can unlock economic potential with higher levels of power so that we aren’t always just meeting basic needs in developing countries.    

EarthSpark is working on getting our microgrid powering homes and businesses as and when the community rebuilds. It’s not easy and there is a lot of risk involved, but our work also holds so much potential for not only solving energy access in Haiti but also unlocking deeper economic security and quality of life for the regions we serve. Thank you so much for your support. Many of you also donated on Giving Tuesday, increasing your impact through matching funds. We couldn't do our work without great supporters like you.