South Sudan's radio is getting a revamp. Issa Kassimu, the radio community's electrical engineer has provided the best solution to the country's lack of information problem.
According to Radio World, Issa Kassimu has built solar panels to provide their FM radio station, Mayardit, a longer sustain of power that will give them longer broadcasting time. Kassimu is the engineer who always repairs the generator of the station. He then suggested to Mayardit to revert to solar power.
Yahoo Finance has reported that Mayardit FM has now 84 solar panels and 48 batteries. It provided the radio station a 24-hour broadcast using the reserved energy from the panel. It is placed in the northeast part of South Sudan, in Turalei. It cost $172,000 and that amount will be covered within five years. The change will definitely save them money on fuel, equipment and repairs.
In those remote locations, fuel is two to three times more expensive than the cost in Juba, so I thought of something that could at least be sustainable," he said.
Internews stated that Mayardit used to spend $22,000 a year for the maintenance of the generators. They have also stated that fuels in the remote areas are super expensive and it is so hard to afford so Mayardit opt to not broadcast at all to those places.
Issa talked about his project to an audience earlier this year. He said that as of March 2016, Mayardit FM has been solely running on solar power. Its broadcast hours have been extended from 8 to 16 hours a day. It also never recorded a down time or off air. He further explained that the power and batteries were used interchangeably. If the batteries are full, the power will take over, if there is no sun, the battery will automatically be running.
He also encouraged other people to use the same method. He believes that solar power is the better option than fuels that cause harm to the environment.
See how solar power helps South Sudan in other ways.
