After Years In The Dark, Thai Hilltop Village Embraces New Era

Do you see those flowers?” the driver asked as the vehicle slowly edged along a narrow, winding track carved into the hillside.

He pointed to rows of chrysanthemum plants stretching across the slope, their outlines beginning to fade under the soft afternoon light.

“They need light at night,” he said.

If there is no light, the plants cannot grow well?

He nodded gently before giving a simple reply, “No light, no flowers.”

Huay Nam Rin, home to approximately 30 families from the Hmong community, is located about 45 kilometres from Chiang Mai, yet the journey to the hilltop village makes it clear that distance alone does not define accessibility.

Huay Nam Rin villagers unload donated supplies and energy equipment as part of GoRental’s Chiang Mai CSR project.

In early April, Bernama travelled to Chiang Mai, Thailand, at the invitation of GoRental Global, a Singapore-based energy solutions company, to witness a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative aimed at improving the lives of residents in the remote village of Huay Nam Rin.

The vehicle moved slowly along the uneven and steep road, with loose gravel shifting beneath the tyres. At certain turns, the drop at the side opened wide, revealing layers of hills stretching into the distance.

After a one-and-a-half-hour journey by van from Chiang Mai, the vehicle stopped near a meditation centre. Beyond that point, the road to Huay Nam Rin is narrow and rather steep, so a four-wheel-drive vehicle was used to get to the village. The final stretch was just a 10-minute drive, but it felt longer, with each turn showing just how far removed the tiny village was from the city below.

LIFE BEFORE LIGHT

In Huay Nam Rin, once the sun goes down, darkness would take over the village much faster than it does in the lowlands. For years, its small farming community, who earn a livelihood cultivating chrysanthemums and passion fruit, lived without electricity as the settlement lay beyond the reach of the national power grid.

Its village chief Kriangkrai Suya said they were forced to use diesel- or petrol-powered generators which, however, were only able to run for a few hours each night as fuel is expensive.

Huay Nam Rin Village Chief, Kriangkrai Suya.

“Once the generators were switched off, homes were left in near-total darkness, forcing villagers to depend on candles and kerosene lamps,” he told Bernama through an interpreter.

In some cases, Kriangkrai said villagers had to improvise by using car batteries through do-it-yourself wiring setups to power basic lighting. This solution, however, was risky and often prone to short circuits, although it was the only option available to many families at the time.

“The children could not do their homework properly at night. Sometimes there was light (from the generator), but it was not (bright) enough and it affected their eyes,” he said.

He added that their chrysanthemum cultivation requires controlled lighting at night to encourage growth. This left farmers heavily reliant on generators, which he described as costly and inconsistent.

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

That was in the past. Today, things have literally brightened up in Huay Nam Rin. All households in the community have been enjoying reliable off-grid electricity supply since March 31, 2026, thanks to GoRental Global’s CSR project, which deployed a combination of portable battery energy storage systems and photovoltaic solar panels to power the village.

A total of 31 portable battery storage units and 60 solar panels were installed, providing the village with 40 kilowatts of distributed renewable mobile microgrid capacity and 8kW of solar generation.

Villagers and community leaders together with the GoRental team after the deployment of a modular off-grid solar and battery system in Huay Nam Rin Village, Chiang Mai.

According to GoRental Global, approximately US$100,000 was spent on the project at Huay Nam Rin, marking the first deployment under the company’s Energy Resilience CSR programme.

The transformation was immediate.

 “(First of all) it is much safer for us to walk around the village at night. Our children can study at night, too,” a delighted Kriangkrai said.

“And, we don’t have to rush to do everything before it gets dark. It makes life better for everyone here.”

He added, “Electricity is very important. Nobody wants to live in a place that is always dark (at night). We want our people to have a better life… we want our quality of life to continue improving.”

Also, their economic activities after dark are no longer restricted to the limited hours of generator use. More importantly, access to electricity has restored a sense of control over time, giving the villagers the freedom to decide how they spend their evenings and how they shape their future. 

On the evening of Bernama’s visit, a group of villagers gathered in an open field to share a meal beneath the glow of the newly installed lamps.

The gathering felt simple, but meaningful. What would once have been difficult to hold after dark now felt natural as the village stayed bright enough for people to sit, talk and enjoy nightfall together.

“Before this, we lived in the dark. Now that we have light, we just want our village to keep improving, step by step,” said Kriangkrai.

Though simple, his words captured the profound impact that electricity has had on the community – bringing not only light to their homes but also renewed hope for a better future.