SIGORA HOME BLOG:
St. Louis Du Nord Hospital In Haiti Transitions To Reliable, Clean Energy With Sigora Solar
The Hospital in Saint Louis Du Nord, Haiti is now running on nearly 100% clean, reliable energy. Solar panels were donated by Sigora Solar and Sigora Haiti performed the actual installation. The hospital’s biomedical equipment, refrigeration systems, and other critical medical technology were powered by a diesel generator before Sigora Solar and Sigora Haiti offered assistance. The diesel generation caused a significant deficit in the hospital’s budget and made covering basic medical care and the staff’s salaries difficult. Today, the generators lie dormant while 97% of the facilities power needs are accomplished through the solar arrays installed on the building’s roof and a battery backup system.
Jean Pierre Sawardjnes, one of the original co-founders of Sigora Haiti – sister company of Sigora Solar, posing on roof of hospital in Saint Louis Du Nord, Haiti, Northwest Department, with a fresh install of a solar panel + storage microgrid donated by Sigora Solar in alliance with the German foundation EKFS (Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung) and facilitated by HADPRE.
The Hospital has earned the award of “Best Functioning Public Hospital” in Haiti by the World Bank in 2018 and is the only hospital in the Northwest Province of Haiti with a proper working surgery room. The hospital construction, transition to sustainable, long-term operation and clean-energy transition was managed by the current Director of Operations for Sigora Haiti, Sonja Schilling.
Northwest Haiti is the poorest region of the poorest country in the western hemisphere, suffering from devastating lack of access, infrastructure, and opportunity. Sigora Haiti has made a commitment to the Northwest region since 2013 and has brought clean, reliable, and fairly-priced electricity to more than 25,000 customers. Including residential homes, small commercial businesses, cell towers, health clinics, schools, churches, sports facilities, and more. Sigora Haiti accomplishes their grid reliability through a combination of solar, storage, thermal backup, and interconnected micro-grids utilizing proprietary in-house smart metering technology.