As recent events have suggested, solar developers and environmentalists haven’t always had a happy relationship. While environmentalists and advocates for the widespread adoption of solar power have yet to become bosom buddies (seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it?), a San Francisco building contractor by the name of Stephen Gold has shown that solar panels can be just what conservation researchers out in the wild need.

Field researchers, who can spend long stretches of time up on the mountains of Ethiopia or camped in the grasslands of Botswana, often depend on diesel generators for electricity to power their computers, blood-sample freezers and satellite transmitters. The generators, however, can be loud—loud enough to scare away the very animals the scientists are studying—and unreliable. Furthermore, they depend on fuel, which can be hard to come by in the middle of the Serengeti.

Gold, who is also a volunteer with the Wildlife Conservation Network, hopes to counteract this problem by assembling self-sustaining solar power kits for researchers in all corners of the world. Many of his solar kits comprise of equipment donated from companies like BP Solar, Beronio Lumber and Solar Depot, or sold at or below wholesale cost. He began the initiative after hearing a cheetah researcher in 2003 discuss the lack of reliable power out in the field, and after contacting WCN Executive Director Charles Knowles with his idea to use solar systems in lieu of generators, the WCN Solar Project was born. Since 2006, Gold has shipped 11 solar kits to researchers out in the wild—hopefully with many more to follow.

While it’s not clear from either the story or the website whether Gold simply donates the kits or sells them to the researchers at a (presumably) discounted price, and the solar system’s efficacy depends largely on the kind of environment to which it is being sent, the WCN Solar Project nevertheless appears to help where it counts. If you’re a solar panel manufacturer or contractor interested in getting involved—or simply someone who wants to help—check out the WCN Solar Project’s webpage here.