Outline
A small health facility in the Eastern Highlands approx. 20 km from Goroka. The health center serves a population of approx. 5000 persons from surrounding villages. Current power supply is highly unreliable, resulting in breakdown of the cooling chain for medicines and the vaccine fridge. Fragile medicine needs to be fetched from Goroka, about a 1hr car-drive when roads are in drivable condition. Surgeries and birth assistance after sunset currently need to be performed in the light of a cellphone flashlight.
Specific challenges
The Health Center lies in the immediate vicinity of the old mission station, a Primary day-school and within about 1 km from the large Secondary School, a boarding school with approx.1500 students.
The Health Center operates on very limited resources and is the primary target for the solar power station. The nearby schools have different power usage patterns which do not correspond with the Health Center. The schools are good candidates for the later stages of SolSol rollout, while the Health Center requires immediate attention and improvement of its operating conditions.
Planned solution
The Health Center consists of three buildings: the medical house with treatment rooms and the medical equipment, a smaller “outpatient house” for patients before being dismissed and another staff house for the nurses and medical staff.
The Health Center has a rather small, but shade-free and suitable roof to support the solar system, sufficient keep the medical house and the other residential buildings powered. Most of the usage is expected in the medical house, which operates all days and also during night time, depending on the incidents arriving randomly at any hour of the day or night.
The battery capacity shall be dimensioned with a large safety margin to ensure availability of power even through busy nights. In the 21st century, it is not acceptable that a medical procedure in a Health Center is interrupted or is infeasible due to lack of electrical energy.
There is no suitable room within the medical house to hold the power electronics and the battery systems. All rooms are rather small and are mostly already utilized to a large extent. Possibly a small extension needs to be built to hold the power electronics.
Estimated completion date
end of Year 2025.
Required resources
The staff of the Health center is heavily loaded with work and the local technical team may need to be recruited or shared with the adjacent schools. Approx 4 persons, men and women equally will be needed to operate, maintain, repair the systems and to maintain them in good quality over their expected lifetime of 15-20 years.
This local technical team will attend the SolSol “Engineering School” courses to learn how a solar systems works and how to keep it in good health condition. This includes basic training on installation of the components, maintenance, regular quality controls and administration and recording of the energy meters deployed throughout the campus.
