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Power Project at Bwindi Community Hospital

We were able to conduct a small survey of the Power Project in Bwindi during our last orthopaedic mission in October.

The panels were delivered in January 2024. Instead of the two months planned for completion of the project, 6 months were needed: the installation was deferred by a delay in the supply of the panels, but also because the planned installation overlooked a problem of location: the aluminium roofs cannot support the weight of the panels, and anchoring them poses problems of watertightness. Some of the 12 panels found a roof. The rest had to be placed on a metal structure fixed to the ground.

The system has been operating since the beginning of July 2024, with 128 solar panels covering an area of 353m2, 20 batteries and 4 inverters….

The aim is to combine photovoltaic energy – mainly during the day – with that from the dam at night. The batteries have to make up the shortfall.

Since 1 July, we have been receiving monthly reports on electricity production and consumption, as well as the associated costs.

A WhatsApp group set up with the SolarNow company (which includes Africomed and Tyler Bacciarini) is being used to deal with alerts or problems…

Remote maintenance is provided by the company that installed the panels, SolarNow, and the system provides consumption and production figures (NB: Grid = Hydroelectricity from the dam). 

Other challenges remain to be overcome, the most important of which is the lack of automatic control of the dam, which leads to power cuts when it is necessary to switch from one energy source to another. This transition is done manually, with an electrician always on the lookout for bad weather, water shortages or energy overloads.

While there are still many imperfections in the management of this new energy source, the installation of solar panels at the Bwindi community hospital has been a success. One example is the absence of diesel consummation by the hospital in September.

FS 17.10.2024