This Christmas, the German manufacturer Centrosolar is donating solar panels for an aid project in Haiti. The ‘Centre de Santé Lachapelle’ health centre in northern Haiti will receive Centrosolar panels with an output of 7 kWp. A diesel power system has been supplying the centre with power up to now. However, it could only operate intermittently on grounds of cost.
The Centre de Santé Lachapelle is an important facility for outpatient medical care, vaccination campaigns and maternity services. It is operated by Haiti-based Organisation Service Oecuménique D’Entraide (SOE), with the support of Medico International. The donated solar system will mainly be used to provide power to medical equipment, refrigerators used to store medicines and computers in the ward. The stand-alone system, backed up by batteries, will provide a more stable and reliable supply of power. This means the centre’s limited opening hours can be extended. “Almost three years after the earthquake, the situation in Haiti remains precarious. Thousands still live in tent cities and emergency camps. The public power grid is not fully developed, and it is also extremely prone to disruptions. That’s why photovoltaic systems make such a massive contribution to ensuring a reliable power supply,” reports Manuela Jakobi, press spokeswoman at Centrosolar.
Centrosolar supports the Haitian health centre in cooperation with the Biohaus-Stiftung (Biohaus Foundation). The foundation, responsible for installing the donated panels on site, is also donating inverters and batteries. In 2009, Willi Ernst, founder of one of Centrosolar’s predecessor companies and currently an advisor to the Centrosolar Group AG, established the Biohaus-Stiftung für Umwelt und Gerechtigkeit (Biohaus Foundation for Environment and Justice). He will travel to Haiti in February to oversee the installation of the new solar power system.
For more information, please visit:
www.centrosolar.com
About Centrosolar
With locations in Hamburg, Paderborn and Kempten in the Allgäu, Centrosolar AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Munich-based Centrosolar Group AG. The Centrosolar Group is an international company with over 1,000 employees and annual sales of €300 million (2011). All of the subsidiaries offer products and solutions for converting solar energy into electricity. The product range includes photovoltaic (PV) systems, PV mounting systems, solar glass and project planning for PV systems in the megawatt range. The Centrosolar Group operates a panel production facility in Wismar, Germany (annual capacity: 350 MWp) as well as solar glass production facilities in Germany and China (total capacity: 8 million m² of glass). Subsidiaries are located in Germany, France, Italy, Greece, the UK, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the US and Canada.
