After decades in darkness, this entire Thai village is now powered by solar energy

PRANBURI, Thailand: Patcharin In-juang was pregnant when she agreed to move to the home village of her husband in Pranburi district in central Thailand back in 2004. She was from the city, so she was expecting a different life in the rural community.

But she was shocked to nd out when she arrived at Wong Wan village that her new home had no access to electricity. It was a detail her husband had failed to mention.

“It was so hard to adjust myself. My life changed a lot,” she said. “I had to carry a ashlight with me. I had to learn how to cook rice without a rice cooker. There was no fan. I had to sleep on the oor so that I could feel some coldness from the cement floor.

“I had to learn how to live without electricity. It was like learning to walk again,” she said.

In 2018, solar panels were installed on the last of the 400 homes in Wong Wan, under a community-led initiative that finally solved a problem that authorities had not been able to fix in decades. Their self-driven success culminated in the awarding of a global United Nations Public Service Award this year, the village dubbed the “Self-Reliant Solar Energy Community”.

Source : channelnewsasia