Case Study: Luganville Hospital, Vanuatu

The Hospital is in Luganville, the second largest city in Vanuatu. Grid-based, publicly distributed electricity only on the main island; Limited or no supply to rural areas

• Only 27 % of households have access to a permanent source of electricity.
• Unique and difficult challenges – topography, poorly developed infrastructure; fragmented energy markets; economies of scale and limited financial resources
• High upfront capital costs for most renewable energy projects due to remote and dispersed nature of islands.
• In Vanuatu, only four out of 83 islands are on the national grid. The others island operates off grid using solar and fossil-fuel powered generators.
• Highly vulnerable to natural disasters, such as cyclones, flooding, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic eruption

The 20.16kWp roof mount array installed in Santo, Vanuatu consists of 2 x SMA STP10000TL Sunny Tri
Power to supply 3-phase power to the Hospital. The PV modules were roof mounted using industrial grade aluminium rails certified for Region D wind rating using IronRidge XRS Roof Mount flat to roof mounts. The solar strings are combined on the roof and taken to inverters via appropriately sized cables and protection devices.

The installation of the grid connect PV system was carried out under guidelines of Sustainable Energy Industry Association of the pacific Islands (SEIAPI) which adopts the following AS/NZS standards.

Some of the challenges that required a solution included:

• Characterized by high relative power prices
• The cost of powering all hospital essential equipment
• Regular and consistent power supply for vital equipment and services associated with the hospital.

The solutions provided had the following benefits:

• This solar system was designed to generate 26.61MWh / year of solar energy.
• Provided significant cost savings which provided a rapid payback to the system
• Provided the hospital with regular and consistent power