More than 100 families in Logar Province will enjoy cleaner and cheaper energy this winter, thanks to an initiative from the local Afghan Community Development Council.

The project was designed in close consultation with the Baraki Barak District Development Council, which nominated five villages to receive 25 solar panels each, one for each family.

Each solar panel generates approximately 40 watts of sustained electricity per household, enough to light four rooms with the most-commonly used 10-watt bulbs.

The solar panels can help address concerns villages have expressed about house fires ignited by highly combustible gas cylinders.  In addition to safety, the solar panels save each family about $30 per month.

The 25 solar panels cost $10,700 and, in a strong show of local participation, each Community Development Council paid about 10 percent of the cost, as well as providing the bulbs, batteries, and cables needed to run the panels.

Installation of the Logar solar panels follows similar projects in Paktya and Ghazni.  Similar projects in other parts of the country will follow over the next year.

USAID has worked to improve delivery of electricity and power to the people of Afghanistan.  USAID recently awarded a major new contract to work with communities and Provincial Reconstruction Teams to build small-scale renewable energy systems, especially in the south and the east.  Through this $80 million project, 300 communities will receive assistance to install or rehabilitate micro-hydropower, solar, and wind projects and establish the operations and maintenance systems to keep them running.