Researchers from UNSW Sydney are equipping remote communities across Vanuatu with the skills and spare parts needed to repair broken solar equipment, keeping vital off-grid power running and reducing electronic waste.
Across Vanuatu’s outer islands, household solar systems provide essential power for lighting, phone charging, and freezers that allow families to store fish and produce rather than selling them immediately.
However, UNSW Scientia Associate Professor Paul Munro found roughly half of the solar-powered freezers his team inspected in the archipelago were no longer working.
“There’s been this massive transition from almost no solar 15 years ago to it being everywhere,” Munro said.
“But one thing we’re realising is there is this issue of a lot of products breaking within two, three years.”
When components fail, limited access to replacement parts and local technicians often leaves expensive appliances sitting idle.
To tackle the issue, Associate Professor Munro and UNSW colleague Dr Shanil Samarakoon, alongside gender and development researcher Dr Joyce Wu, established the Fixim Sola project in partnership with Vanuatu’s Department of Energy, the Vanuatu Institute of Technology, and local communities.
Supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the program links technical expertise, tools, and spare parts with local repair hubs. Solar importers train educators at the institute, who then run intensive vocational courses for participants nominated by local councils across the islands.
The team has also piloted week-long maintenance workshops at two senior secondary schools, enabling boarding students from outer islands to bring practical repair skills back to their home villages.
“We’re creating the conditions for solar repair to thrive in Vanuatu. This links expertise, parts, and tools with local repair hubs. This way, systems stay in use and communities stay connected,” Dr Samarakoon said.
Backed by a US$200,000 (AU$293,754) Macquarie Community Resilience Prize over the next two years, the UNSW team plans to expand its Vanuatu program while exploring similar initiatives in Timor-Leste and elsewhere in the Pacific.