Located in the mountains of Southern Haiti, Hospital Lumiere is a 120-bed medical-surgical facility that served the 60,000 residences of Bonne Fin despite having no access to utility power. Instead, the hospital relied on a combination of aging hydro and diesel generators leaving the hospital struggling with costly fuel bills, and regular brown and black outs that interrupted medical care, damaged sensitive equipment, and jeopardized medicine storage.

To alleviate these issues, the hospital decided to go solar; and turned to Smucker’s Energy’s for its extensive experience with an off-grid solar systems to design and install the hospital’s 84kw AC Coupled Stand Alone Micro Grid which incorporates, both the existing hydro and diesel generators, along with 4000-amp hour of battery capacity.

Smucker’s Energy did this project at cost, with a volunteer crew and worked with its trusted network of solar partners, manufacturers, and distributors, to secured top-tier solar components at a much-reduced cost. In addition, Smucker’s Energy put its considerable grant writing skills (honed on USDA REAP Grants) to work and secured, on behalf of the hospital, a grant of 50 kilowatts of solar modules from SolarWorld’s Solar2World Program.

With the generous grant from SolarWorld, the project size was increased to the current 84 kilowatts of solar which offsets nearly all the hospital’s present-day needs. A project of this type is a substantial undertaking in any local, but in a remote location in Haiti there are additional challenges to navigate.