Oct 8 2010
Moloka’i General Hospital, a 15-bed Critical care Hospital located on the island of Moloka’i, will have solar power to perform its operations. The 105.48 kW rooftop solar power system was installed under solar power purchase partnership accord with Solar Power Partners of Mill Valley, CA with no investment from the hospital.
ProVision Solar, a Hilo-based company designed the system utilizing high power producing 315 W PV modules and self-ballasted T5 hardware manufactured SunPower Corporation and installed it at the hospital.
The PPA accord signed by the hospital with Solar Power Partners will allow Solar Power to own the system and maintain it where as the hospital pays for the electric power produced from the solar installation at a pre-fixed rate for the period of contract. The signed PPA allows the hospital to know and pay a fixed amount for a part of its electricity consumption without any escalation or revision in tariff for the period of accord. The accord works out cheaper for the hospital due to the constantly varying and high electricity charges prevailing in Hawaii. The solar power module installed at the hospital will produce approximately 170,000 kWh power covering nearly 25% of its power requirement in the first year. The renewable energy use of the hospital can be equated to annulling CO2 emissions from the use of 14,000 gallons of gasoline every year.
Randy Lite, Moloka’i General Hospital’s Vice President, expressed excitement about the green power installation that can cut down its spending on electric power. He further said that being a non-profit organization, the hospital was not able to avail the tax credits offered by the state and federal governments and the signed power purchase agreement allows the hospital to avail the solar power without capital investment at a reduced rate thus allowing the hospital to trim down its carbon foot print.
Source: http://www.solarpowerpartners.com/