Awareness of energy conservation with training on solar energy

Celebrated on April 22 since 1970, Earth Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of environmental issues and initiatives taken to reduce carbon impact.

Touched by climate change, Première Urgence Internationale has decided to train its teams in solar energy with the support of the French association, ReNewGies. The objective of this new collaboration is to promote and support the integration of renewable energies, essentially through photovoltaic energy.

^{Installation of photovoltaic panels in Nigeria | © Première Urgence Internationale}

Today 46 national and expatriate employees have been trained and sensitized on solar installation, and by the end of June 2023, there will be 105 people trained on 22 missions.

Learn more about solar energy

Through this training, we will learn about the concept of renewable energy, as well as the optimizations that can be put in place to reduce our carbon footprint. For example, to limit our greenhouse gas emissions, we have chosen to use photovoltaic panels on some of our mission buildings, allowing us to create electricity from a renewable energy, the sun.

^{Installation of photovoltaic panels in Nigeria | © Première Urgence Internationale}

Reduce energy consumption

Thanks to a tool developed with ReNewGies, our missions will be able to calculate the number of solar panels and batteries to be installed to meet their needs. It has been found that our needs can almost be covered by solar panels, except at the end of the day when batteries will have to take over.

This tool also allows to compare the cost of the installation of solar panels compared to the installation of a generator and its cost of use (maintenance, upkeep, fuel). Indeed, generators, which consume fuel, are quicker to set up (especially in an emergency situation) but the maintenance and the use of a fossil energy mean that the investment in photovoltaic, in addition to being a non-carbon energy, is amortized in a few years.

^{Solar panel batteries in Nigeria | © Première Urgence Internationale}

This approach continues our commitment over the past few years to reducing our environmental impact. It also brings about changes in behaviour within Première Urgence Internationale and a reflection on its sustainable purchasing criteria, in order to reduce our carbon footprint and better manage our waste.