Between the record breaking heat of yesterday and today, the southern villages of Indian Creek, Golden Stream, and Medina Bank will have enough electricity to power their homes. That's after decades of being in the dark, since these villages didn't have the basic necessity we tend to take for granted. But through a collaboration between the governments of Belize and the United Arab Emirates, these villages now have their very own solar power plant.
Courtney Menzies went south yesterday for the inauguration and has this story.
Indian Creek residents now have a new way of life as they flip their light switches, charge their cellphones, and plug in their refrigerators. In the decades before, electricity was a distant hope, but yesterday, their solar plant system was officially inaugurated.
And like the Prime Minister said, without electricity, many southern villages have been left in the dark - literally, and now, they have a better opportunity for development.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The lack of access to reliable electricity has hindered growth, has limited economic activities, and has held back the potential for the people of these three communities. It has disadvantaged the people of these communities by denying them access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services, something we as a nation committed to providing them when we sign onto the sustainable development goals. Today we're here to fulfill the goal for the people of Indian Creek, Medina Bank and Golden Stream. "
"The provision of electricity to your area will transform your lives in countless ways. It will bring light to your home, allowing your children to study longer, learn new skills, and excel in their education. It will power your community shops, making moving about at night safer, and enable new and creative businesses. It will connect you to the world, bridging the digital divide and opening up new avenues for communications, learning, and innovation."
Ernesto Choc, Chairman, Indian Creek
"This solar plant stand as a symbol of our commitment to renewable energy with it's cutting edge technology and vast capacity, it will contribute significantly to reducing carbon emissions and providing clean and sustainable electricity to our community."
But it's not as simple as installing the plant and flipping a switch - this project is months in the making, and one of the most important barriers was first getting consent from the villages as a part of the FPIC order.
Oscar Requena, Minister of Rural Transformation
"Certainly here for Indian Creek and these communities, it was a very lengthy process and a very worthwhile process because we must ensure that we adhere to what the Caribbean Court of Justice has rules and we want to ensure that they understand what the project is about, how it is going to impact their lives, positively or negatively, and how they can contribute to this process and most important how they can benefit and finally for them to give their consent."
And this is just the start - 21 other villages will soon be seeing their own solar plant, which will ensure that once there is sunlight, they will have electricity
Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities
"This clearly is in a way a pilot kind of system and this is going to set the standard for what we're going to do after. There are about 21 villages across the country who do not yet have electricity and in those villages, we're looking at them particularly because the national grid has not yet reached them and it's not like it's going to reach them in the next couple years so this is the model we're going to use to bring electricity."
"The 21 of them have been identified but the ones we are going to be going to next is going to be Jalacte, San Benito Pointe, San Vicente, and I believe Fireburn in Orange Walk."
"This is excellent because it's free standing and this one is not only backed up by battery but it's also backed up by diesel generator so in the day the battery stores the energy and at night it releases and if in fact the battery would deplete during the night, then the generators would kick in automatically so this is an excellent system."
And the next villages at the top of the list are Jalacte, San Vicente, and San Benito Pointe.
The plant is projected to save Belize nearly 200,000 litres of diesel fuel and prevent approximately 500 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
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