Welcome to Mr. Ly Vanda, governor of Sihanouk Province.

Welcome to the representative of the embassy of Finland.

Welcome to the sponsors of the project through the office of the EEP Energy and Environment Partnership in the Mekong region. 

Welcome to the representatives of the Ministry of Industry Mine and Energy of Cambodia.

Welcome to the representative of Electricite du Cambodge.

Ladies and gentlemen

It is with the greatest pleasure to meet you at the occasion of the opening and the realization of the First Large Scale Grid Connected Solar Energy Project in Cambodia.

This project has installed 386 solar panels on 2 roofs of this Don Bosco School. One panel has a dimension of 1.80 x 1.20meter. All together about 800m2 is covered with solar panels producing electricity. It has become a solar energy factory.

As the name announces: the First Large Grid Connected Solar Energy Project in Cambodia.

Being the first in this field you can imagine it took a long time and many obstacles had to be overcome.

- First the right company to design the project had to be chosen and who had the trust of the office of Finland which is EEP office of Bangkok. The company chosen is called Kamworks Company of Phnom Penh of which Mr. Arjen Luxwolda is managing director. They designed our solar project.

The biggest obstacle became the electricity produced in surplus should enter the national grid operated by Electricite du Cambodge – this because there are still no laws in Cambodia covering this problem.

I wrote a letter to His Excellency the Prime Minister Hun Sen asking his intercession to obtain the grant to allow excess electricity to flow into the national grid and this was granted by the council of Ministry No. 1655 សដណ.ឧស on October 2013 and the highest authorities of Electricite du Cambodge gave permission of synchronizing our solar system with the voltage network of EDC Sihanouk Ville.

It is here the place to thank His Excellency the Prime Minister Hun Sen and his council for this support.

We also thank the Electricite du Cambodge for accepting this project. Thank you so much.

The project EEP 4 – C – 040 was signed on 4 April 2014. The budget for this project is Euro 130,000 (which is about US$ 170,000) while EEP provided 50.5% and the partner 49.5%.

The partner wants to remain anonymous and the signboard will mention: Friends of Don Bosco.

In the months June – August all equipment was bought from China and Germany.

We also thank the Royal Government of Cambodia of allowing all equipment to enter Cambodia duty free.

Since September is always the rainiest months in Sihanouk Ville the construction work started only in October 2014.

The work proceeded by laying the mountain structure on the roof tiles; the laying and connecting of the 386 solar panels, the putting on the 16 inverters and laying a cable of 400 meters from the solar panel source to the point where the electricity of the municipality enters the school compound. All this work was done by the teachers and students of the Don Bosco Technical School, first instructed and then supervised by Mr. Michael Restivo, an American expert on solar and a volunteer with Don Bosco and Miss. Veronique Lim from Kamworks Company. Thank you so much. 

On 27 November 2014 the work was finished and Mr. Arjen Luxwolda director of Kamworks and 2 experts from EDC inspected the solar construction done by the teachers and students and declared it 100 percent okay and switched on the system.

It is a moment to celebrate the successful installation of a beautiful solar project which besides producing electricity assisting the finances of the Don Bosco Technical and Hotel School but will also instruct many students in the usage and maintenance of solar and will serve as a demonstration project for those interested in solar.

I thank the governor H.E. Chhin Sarin being with us and I thank all of you present here.

May God bless your persons and that all your undertaking may be successful.