On August 15, an SNU professor and his students introduced electricity to the Lama Hotel Village, a small village 120km north of Kathmandu located in the Langtang National Park in the Himalayan Mountains with an altitude of 2478m. Only seven families, a total of thirty people, live in this small Himalayan village, but around ten thousand hikers and tourists pass through annually.

The 'SNU Nepal - Solar Volunteer Group', which consists of Professor AHN Sung-Hoon of the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and thirteen SNU students, visited Nepal from August 11 to 18 this year. They installed solar electricity generators and 80 LED light bulbs in the village.

The idea behind the Solar Volunteer Group came from a conversation last year that Professor Ahn had with one of his doctoral students. Binayak Bhandari, who originally came from Nepal, said that"there are many regions in Nepal with no electricity." This motivated Professor Ahn to start the Solar Volunteer Group and thirteen graduate and undergraduate students were interested in joining the project.

With help from Mr. Bhandari and the University of Kathmandu, the volunteer group first had to look for potential places to go. They learned about the Lama Hotel Village and decided that the village was the ideal place for their work. Since the village is located inside the Langtang National Park, there were tight regulations on development and the chances of the villagers getting electricity in the near future were very slim. Professor Ahn and the students decided to use solar panels and energy-efficient LED light bulbs to illuminate the village. The total cost of the project amounted to 45 million won of which a large portion was donated by SNU professors who sympathized with the volunteer group’s endeavors. The remaining amount came from Professor Ahn and the students’ own pockets.

On August 11, the volunteer group arrived in Kathmandu and it took two days to reach the Lama Hotel Village. Seventy workers and two donkeys carried the equipment and they climbed up the mountain all the way. When the group finally arrived at the village, they worked for two days to install a 2kW solar panel and the LED bulbs in the houses of seven families and two village kitchens. On the evening of the 15th, the Lama Hotel Village was brightly lit after sunset for the first time ever. Professor Ahn and his students celebrated and sang the Nepali traditional folk song, Resham Firiri, with the villagers in the light.

Professor Ahn said,"In Korea, we can only use two heaters with 2kW, but ten thousand people in Nepal can use light in the dark now with the same amount of electricity." He smiled and added,"Now the Lama Hotel Village can celebrate day and night."

Written by JANG Eunju, SNU English Editor, ejjang1025@snu.ac.kr  ?
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com