what makes us tick

Clean Energy Store Opens in Les Anglais!


The Clean Energy Store grand opening!

EarthSpark’s first Clean Energy Store (Magazen Enèji Pwòp in Creole) held its grand opening this month with a full day of events and community outreach in Les Anglais, a small town near the tip of Haiti’s southern peninsula. A first-of-its-kind retail outlet, the store offers small-scale solar electricity systems, efficient and alternative fuel cookstoves, and manufacturing equipment for alternative charcoal briquettes. Each product sold at the store holds benefits for the end users, the local community, and the environment.

After a morning of local DJ’s, product demonstrations, raffles, and special guests at the marketplace, Sinema Anba Zetwal, the acclaimed “Cinema Under the Stars” troupe from Port-au-Prince, lit up a giant screen in the town square for a full evening program that highlighted the environment, Haitian culture, and the benefits of solar electricity products and efficient cook stoves.

In this town without an electricity grid where people use inefficient stoves (when they have stoves at all), people carried wooden chairs into the square, set up seats on rooftops, and lined the fences to watch the evening of environmental programming which featured short films, cartoons, a vox pop short film of Les Anglaisians’ thoughts on clean energy, live testimonials from fellow-townspeople who had tested the products, as well as explanations from manufacturers and a guest speaker from Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest micro-finance institution. The evening concluded with the full length environmental docu-film “Home” by Yann Arthus-Betrand in Haitian Creole.

The people of Les Anglais were impressed with the film screening and professionalism of the event. “Les Anglais has never seen an installation this noble” one of the attendees commented. Another threw her hands in the air stretched far apart to convey how ‘ampil ampil extraordinaire‘ the night had been.

The Clean Energy Store grand opening!

The following morning, a small crowd gathered outside of the store before its doors opened at nine. Some had come to claim the stoves and solar products they had won in the raffle, and others came to look at the goods. The first paying client that day was a woman from the 9 am crowd who wanted to get a ‘miracle stove’ before her day of cooking at the market. She had heard that she could save 10 gourdes (approx US$0.25) in charcoal costs each day with the efficient stove, and she was anxious to start her savings when she fueled her business that day.

During its first week in operation, the store saw a steady stream of townspeople coming to learn more about the products. The ‘miracle stove’ – a locally-produced efficient cookstove that saves 25% of typical charcoal consumption – has so far been the best selling item, though there is a growing waiting list for the much-anticipated solar home systems that will arrive in the next few weeks.

To see more photos from the Grand Opening click here.

Very special thanks and congratulations to COREA, CRAN, AVODCA, D+E Enterprises, The Green Family Foundation, Fast Forward Haiti, Sinema Anba Zetwal, and to all of the citizens of Les Anglais for making this opening a success!