B.J. Allen (center) is the project manager for a joint effort to provide more reliable, environ- mentally friendly and less expensive power to fuel Phebe Hospital in Liberia.
Solar grid to lower bills, enhance care at Phebe Hospital
By Anne Basye L
ife with no electrical grid is tough. Turn on the lights? Plug in a radio? Just a dream
in Liberia, where the electrical grid destroyed during a 15-year civil war has not been replaced. Only about 2 percent of Liberi-
ans have access to electricity. Public institutions like Phebe Hospital, a ministry of the Lutheran Church in Liberia, must generate their own power to stay in business. Five diesel generators run so
Phebe can light its wards, cool its vaccines and medications, and deliver care. But they aren’t fool- proof. Generators break down and diesel fuel deliveries can be delayed. When Phebe owes the fuel supplier money, deliveries stop. So does power—sometimes right in the middle of a surgical procedure. “Why not solar?” thought Mary
Jo Mettler of Pine City, Minn., when she saw the generators during a
A solar electric array like this installed by the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) in Minnesota will help Phebe Hos- pital, a ministry of the Lutheran Church in Liberia, save money by reducing diesel use.
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www.thelutheran.org
2012 visit to Phebe organized by the Women of the ELCA. Back home, the nonprofit
Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) was busy making solar power accessible to communities of all income levels. Like Minnesota residents strug-
gling with high fuel bills, Phebe was paying $35,000 a month for a power source that was dirty and ineffi- cient. “Might there be some way for RREAL and Phebe to work together to replace those generators with a solar grid?” Metter wondered.
Skipping the grid Yes, said RREAL staff, when Mettler got back to Pine City. A photovol- taic (PV) solar grid was a definite possibility. As a former board member of the Northeastern Minnesota Synodi-
Five different diesel generators are required to power Phebe Hospi- tal. On top of being environmentally detrimental, the generators can often be unreliable, which is a major issue when treatments rely on ongoing power.
cal Women’s Organization, Met- tler turned next to her colleagues in ministry. Members were also intrigued about the possibilities of partnering with RREAL and Phebe Hospital on a solar project. Minnesotans and Liberians
began to talk. Jefferson Sibley, Phebe’s medical director and chief surgeon, visited northeastern Min- nesota to look at RREAL’s solar installations. When RREAL project manager B.J. Allen and founder/ director Jason Edens visited Phebe to meet the staff that will help move the project forward, they discovered an abundance of talent. “Tere’s a masonry crew that can
pour footings for the ground-mount system, and electricians who have already installed small photovoltaic systems,” Allen said.
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