#Sunny Tusheti - Solar Panels Bring Electricity to Georgia’s Mountainous Region

In Tusheti you won’t see overhead electric lines anywhere and it has been that way since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Maligned as the Soviet legacy may be, it managed to achieve infrastructural heights that modern Georgian authorities struggle to cope with, mostly due to insufficient funds. And despite literally every Georgian government praising Tusheti’s touristic prospects, lack of road access and electrical infrastructure have been preventing the region from reaching even a fragment of its aforesaid potential. This is also the main reason why this beautiful mountainous Georgian region, popular among locals and tourists and famous for its amazing landscapes and architecture, was completely cut off from the outer world during winters.

Fortunately enough, in the last several years a little change has been observed in this direction as in Tushetian villages solar panels are being brought and installed by the Czech Development Agency, an international non-governmental organization operating, among other countries, in Georgia.

Today, in Tusheti, 200 families receive electricity via solar panels. The new system is also installed in six public and administrative institutions.

As a testament to how needed and welcomed a change it was, after installing solar panels and batteries for hot water, a multitude of Tushetian families began to open family hotel businesses - hostels and guesthouses- crucial for the development of tourism, as oftentimes it was this lack of very basic infrastructure that made tourists think twice about venturing into Tusheti.

“After the Soviet Union collapsed, the lack of electricity has been one of the main challenges here, and installing solar panels is arguably one of the most important and needed projects carried out in Tusheti. This system provides electricity and hot water to the locals and contributes to the development of tourism in this beautiful region,” said Albert Sido, the attaché of Czech Development Agency.

And least somebody sees solar Tusheti, or #SunnyTusheti, as the project was dubbed in an online campaign, as a means of solving immediate problems. It stands to reason that, in the grand scheme of things, it will play a crucial role in ensuring that Tusheti doesn’t become deserted and the population isn’t hesitant to come back here at least during summertime as it is their chance to generate substantial (to their standards) income by offering their services to tourists whose numbers have been on the rise during recent years.

Kristine Gamtenadze for Georgian Journal