Solarplaza Foundation

We are excited to share with you about the completion and official opening of our Solar & Battery Storage system at Mlambe Hospital, in the south of Malawi. About a year and two months after we visited the hospital for the very first time, on Monday we inaugurated the installation together with the hospital team. The function was attended by Malawi’s Minister of Energy, Mr. Ibrahim Matola, and stakeholders including the local government, the diocese, MERA (Malawi Energy Regulation Authority), the District Health Office and Escom, the Malawian electric transmission and distribution company. The first steps of development started halfway last year, while on-site works (including upgrading of the hospital’s electrical infrastructure) began this February. In the coming weeks and months, we will still be optimizing the energy management and settings. The hospital is running on Solar as a primary source of energy now since several weeks, with the Escom electrical grid and the diesel generator as backup system. 🔸 204 panels, totaling 91kWp of solar, linked with 160kWh of battery storage, provide the hospital with sufficient power for its current loads. 🔸 For safety purposes, as part of the project the hospital electrical infrastructure as well as the main feeder pillar have been upgraded to modern standards (the hospital was built in 1964). 🔸 The stable power supply will decrease the damages to medical equipment (due to voltage spikes), as well as the dependence on the costly diesel generator. It will also increase quality of healthcare and the work conditions of  the healthcare workers. 🔸 The 3% lower yield from the panels on the south facing roof (in comparison to yield from panels on the north facing roofs) was the best option considering several factors, including distance to the power room, state of the roofs, and shading. 🔸 The Hospital has co-invested with us in the costs of the project, and will take responsibility for budgeting of repairs, replacement of parts, and operation and maintenance costs. Ongoing training is provided to empower the staff to take proper care of the system daily. We’re more than happy to (em)power better healthcare at #Mlambe and look forward to apply all the new lessons that came with this project to our future initiatives. A warm thank you to each of our Partners, who make our work possible, and for this project in particular EDP, Sunrock, Fronius International and LONGi Solar. #sdg3 #ruralelectrification #healthcare #solarpower #batterystorage #solarwhereitmattersmost #celebration