Solar Charger for video and mobile phone in South Hebron
July 2008
The video cameras that 'B'tselem' distributes to families in
Palestine, proved to be an important tool in documenting in the
settlement and IDF harassment of the Palestinian population under the
occupation. Few recent video clips taken by these cameras shocked the
public by showing brutal behavior both of the IDF and of settlers. The
video documentation has some impact on the public opinion and on the
political and army decision makers. It also well accepted by the
Palestinian, who use it as a mean to show the world how badly they are
treated under the occupation. The video camera turned to be their
legal mean to fight the daily violence inflicted in the area where
they live and they are proud by their none violent action.
Many of the Palestinian communities in the south Hebron Mountains,
which are the target of the harassment by the settlers, are not
connected to the grid. Charging the video camera batteries or even the
mobile phone is impossible.
Recently 'B'tselem' assigned a budget to acquire few small solar
systems to charge the video cameras.
Since we at the 'villages group' acquired the technical experience in
defining, assembling and installing the solar systems in Susya, we
helped 'B'tselem' in the process, build a prototype and will be active
in installing these systems in South Hebron Mountains communities (see
the prototype photos in the attachment). The systems are based on 10W
solar panel a charge controller and a small deep cycle battery. The
systems will allow for day and night charging of both video and mobile
phones.
Together with the renewable energy systems that we ourselves installed
in Susya, there will be good coverage of mobile phone and video camera
charging possibilities.
Noam Dotan
Villages Group
http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/
