Under any circumstances coping with diabetes is likely to be distressing and problematic. Imagine then how young Sayid Salame and his parents must have felt to learn that, in order to survive, Sayid would require insulin injections every few hours for the rest of his life.

The Salame's are a poor Bedouin family living in a shack 5 km from the nearest town of Tel-Sheva in Israel. Their home has no mains electricity connection so a stand-alone generation system is required to power a refrigerator which will maintain a fresh, long-term reserve of insulin.

It is vital that the power supply to the refrigerator is never interrupted so a PV-wind hybrid system providing 8 days battery capacity was proposed by PV system designers from the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Centre. Two Solarex 55 Wp modules charge the 140 Ah 12 V deep cycle battery. A 400 W Southwest Windpower Air 403 wind turbine ensures that there is no lack of energy during winter. The system powers a 78 litre, 12 volt low energy fridge/freezer which has been supplemented with a further 60 cm of external insulation to further reduce the energy consumption. Two energy efficient lamps were also included in the system which was funded by the Israeli Juvenile Diabetes Association to provide some extra benefit for the family.

Training was provided to Basma, the boy's father, so that he can tell when excess power is available for the lighting system, and when power is running low. After a year of operation and several follow-up visits by the designers, the system continues to perform well and there has never been a power shortage.

Under normal circumstances, the USD 4 000 that the system cost would seem expensive for a few lights and a refrigerator, but for the Salame's it must seem like a small price.

Contact:

• Brian Medwed, Kibbutz Samar
  Fax: +972 (0)86 35 67 58

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