SolarWorld Donates 50 kW of Solar Panels to Provide Clean Power for Haiti Hospital

HILLSBORO, Ore.

SolarWorld, the largest U.S. crystalline-silicon solar manufacturer for more than 40 years, announced today that the company’s donation of 50 kilowatts of high-performance solar panels has enabled a hospital in Bonne Fin, Haiti, to dramatically reduce reliance on expensive and faulty diesel generators.

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A volunteer with Smucker’s Energy of Pennsylvania puts final touches on an installation of SolarWorld solar panels atop Hospital Lumière in Bonne Fin, Haiti. SolarWorld donated 50 kilowatts of solar panels to dramatically reduce the hospital’s reliance on expensive and faulty diesel generators. Credit: Eric Forberger for SolarWorld.

SolarWorld donated the solar panels for Hospital Lumière – a nonprofit, 120-bed primary care and medical-surgical hospital operated by Apostolic Christian HarvestCall – through the company’s Solar2World program, which provides solar panels for community-oriented, rural-electrification projects in developing economies.

Smucker’s Energy, a SolarWorld Authorized Installer based in Lancaster County, Pa., designed and built the system at cost with a volunteer crew and reduced engineering cost from engineer of record, Michael P. Manlove, based in Hershey, Pa. Solar World distributor Civic Solar provided engineering support and major components at reduced cost.

A video released today portrays the project. On the opening day of the fourth annual SolarWorld Installer Summit on Tuesday, June 7, in Portland, Ore., SolarWorld also bestowed a humanitarian award on Smucker’s Energy for its work on the project (see other award winners below). A blog about the project is published on SolarWorld’s website.

“Helping those in need is a family tradition; being a family business, it’s something we’ve done with Smucker’s Energy from the start,” said John Smucker, president and owner of Smucker’s Energy. “I’ve been to Haiti several times, and the need there is great. We feel strongly about contributing and about quality. We wanted to provide this charitable install with the same high-quality solar modules we use in the states, and SolarWorld helped make that happen. It’s very important to use high-quality modules; they hold up longer and produce more over a system’s lifetime.”

In addition to serving a local population estimated at 60,000 residents, Hospital Lumière (Creole for “Hospital of Light”) is known for admitting patients who travel across Haiti to benefit from the hospital’s care, regardless of their religious faith or ability to pay.

Located in mountains about 5½ hours by vehicle from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the hospital lacks electric utility services. Instead, the hospital formerly depended on hydroelectric and diesel generators for power, which were subject to continual fuel and maintenance costs as well as power disruptions that undermined patient treatment, expensive medical equipment and proper medicine storage. A solar-and-battery installation totaling 84 kilowatts, undertaken in late winter, now is expected to provide nearly all of the hospital’s energy needs.

SolarWorld provided solar panels for a hospital in Haiti before the earthquake disaster on Jan. 12, 2010; thereafter, it donated panels for three other hospital projects, not including Lumière.

“Six years after the earthquake, the people of Haiti still need a lot of help,” said Mukesh Dulani, president of SolarWorld Americas Inc., based in Oregon. “Our donated solar panels are now powering at least five hospitals in Haiti, demonstrating the clean power of solar to generate electricity for what should be clean, quiet and safe care facilities. Solar panels require no fuel, moving parts, noise or emissions to do their jobs. For those reasons, they are ideal for powering health-care facilities in energy-restricted locales such as Haiti.”

Other award winners were Corporate Sustainability Champion, Reckitt Benckiser Group; Most Valued Partner, PetersenDean Inc.; Woman Solar Leader of the Year, Valerie Serrato, PetersenDean; Excellence in Customer Service, Infinity Solar Inc.; Solar Champion, Secure Futures; American-made Advocate, North State Solar Energy; and 2015 Highest Volume Registrations, Robco Electric Inc.

About SolarWorld REAL VALUE: SolarWorld manufactures and sells high-tech solar power solutions and, in doing so, contributes to a cleaner energy supply worldwide. The group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, employs about 3,800 people and carries out production in Freiberg, Germany; Arnstadt, Germany; and Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. From raw material silicon to solar wafers, cells and modules, SolarWorld manages all stages of production ‒ including its own research and development. Through an international distribution network with locations in the United States, Europe, Singapore, Japan and South Africa, SolarWorld supplies customers all over the world. The company maintains high social standards at all locations across the globe, and it has committed itself to resource- and energy-efficient production. SolarWorld was founded in 1998 and has been publicly traded on the stock market since 1999. Connect with SolarWorld on Facebook, Twitter and www.solarworld.com.

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SolarWorld Americas Inc.
Ben Santarris, 503-693-5189
Head of Corporate Communications
Mobile: 503-927-9858
Ben.Santarris@SolarWorld.com