It Has Been A Good Week

 We are not totally finished with the week, as we will still finish out tomorrow.  But, much has been accomplished this week.  The five Lithium Battery Banks that were in the PowerPac have been successfully relocated to the Battery Container.  The area where the batteries were in the PowerPac has been cleared out and now has the beginnings of the installation of  new Sunny Island Inverters.  Today, Don worked under the containers to connect  conduits between them for the newest batteries, which have not yet been put totally into place.  We installed the Outback Flexware custom enclosures housing the circuit breakers for the nine future Sunny Islands, and the electrical wire trough that runs along the wall between them and the new Inverters.  

Miguel is really moving along with the Solar Module installation, and crews will follow along with Wire Management (securing the Solar Module wires).  The 2,000 volt DC wiring from the Solar Field are pulled in and connected.   The 400-volt AC wiring from the Tri-Power Inverters is also run to the Combiner Panel and connected.  The Combiner Panel feeder to the SMA Multicluster Box have been pulled in and terminated.  By the end of next week, the Solar portion of the project will be completed.

Lighting and Electrical Outlets have been installed inside the Battery Container, and the new Air Conditioners in that container will have power to them early next week.  Our plans are to pull in the large Battery Cables between containers tomorrow, and then to begin installing the new Inverters.  We hope to be able to update firmware and commission the new Inverters and Batteries early next week.  Once the system is operational, Jonathan and Joseph, who will begin their journey to Burundi tomorrow, will closely monitor the entire system and document all of the settings.  These men are laden with some more "parts", that we hope will not be held up in Customs in Bujumbura on Sunday night.

This was the inside of the PowerPac when we arrived on site.

Cleaning the area out to make room for new equipment.

Here is the Battery Container with all five banks of batteries in place and operating.

Desirae is Kibuye's top Welder and Fabricator.  There is almost nothing this man cannot make.  He was shown welding brackets in the Battery Container in a recent post.  In the PowerPac, we changed our plan for the wire trough installation, as the new wire trough is larger than the old, and I had not ordered enough end caps for it.  We gave him the factory one on the left and he made one up as an exact match on the right.  After it is painted we will install it to connect to the vertical wire trough at the Multicluster Box.

These above photos are of the beginning steps to install the new Inverters in place of the batteries.

The top of these three shows this view from the other end of the PowerPac.  After we get the new wires pulled in to the batteries we will begin installing the new Inverters and this will will fill up.

Working on the Solar Field is totally at the mercy of the weather.  We have had much rain every day except today.  Although it did rain a bit, the sun shined through the clouds and there was even clear sky for several hours.  This gave us a big boost.  By tomorrow, half the new modules should be in place if the weather cooperates.

Although Don made it back to his old self yesterday, there were three more affected in various ways today.  All seemed to have stomach issues, but Mike started taking a Z-Pack treatment as soon as he felt anything coming on, and he seemed fine and worked most of the day.  Nathan and Earl's son Caleb took the whole day off.  Caleb was experiencing all the symptoms that Don had and hopefully will be back with us tomorrow or Sunday.  Nathan is feeliing much better also and his symptoms seemed mild.  Whatever it is that is going around, it probably is not finished with us yet.  Please pray that the rest of the team could remain healthy and that the guys who have experienced this "Bug" would also return to normal health.

Our guesthouse is where we eat our meals.  I have slept there in the past but it is filled with others this trip.

We hear some exotic bird sounds here, especially in the mornings.  But the crows with the white collar and belly are by far the most prevalent.  They are larger than our crows in the States, and also louder, but they are not ravens.