The Korea Energy Agency has built a solar power system for a tiny floating village in Cambodia.
A ceremony was held at the village, Kampong Thakov, in Siem Reap, northwestern part of Cambodia, on Sept. 20 to mark the completion of the “Pico-Grid Village Pilot Project.”
In attendance at the event were officials from the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy of Cambodia, the ASEAN Energy Center, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Cambodia, a Korean company that built the pico grid, and some 200 villagers.
A pico grid is a power grid smaller than a micro grid. The project at the Cambodian floating village involved the installation of a solar power system and an energy storage system (ESS) for 23 households. The Korea Energy Agency also supported the establishment of a payment system to enable villagers to operate and manage the systems on their own.
The project was carried out jointly with the ASEAN Energy Center, an international organization, as one of of the official development assistance (ODA) projects promoted by the Korea Energy Agency.
“The project is quite meaningful in that it created sustainable economic value along with the realization of social value in a rural village with houses built on stilts over water of the poorest people of Cambodia,” said an official of the Korea Energy Agency.
“I am very happy to see villagers using electricity, and I am grateful that there is a medium that connects all people of the village,” the representative of the village said. At the village, people live at stilt houses.
In the meantime, the Korea Energy Agency signed a memorandum of understanding (Mou) on Cambodia’s Carbon Free Island project as a follow-up to the Pico-Grid Village pilot project.
