Why Hospital Should Install Solar Panels on Their Roof?

   

  Malaysia receives plenty of sunlight all year round. The solar irradiance is high in February, March, April, September, and October [1]. We should take advantage of this source that God has given to us. According to a recent research about hybrid photovoltaic/fuel cell/battery system in a hospital in Malaysia, the solar irradiance that the hospital receives ranges from 4,792-5,491 kwh/msquare/day. The annual average of solar irradiance is estimated to be 5.05 kwh/msquare/day. So what does this mean to the hospital in term of potential energy and cost saving?

   This means that the hospital can harvest the free and renewable energy and cut the cost of electricity by installing solar panels. As we all know, hospital are very dependent on grid’s electricity. Hospitals need electricity for pumps, kitchen utilities, ventilation, air-conditioning, medical sterilisers, water distillation, and lifts [2] which must be operated 24/7 and at the same time providing emergency power back up. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center, installed hybrid photovoltaic/fuel cell/battery system and manage to produce 251,760 kwh/year with an excess of 69,003 kwh/year of energy because this facility only used 168,776 kwh/year. Excess of electricity is then stored in a battery system. In the past, this hospital only generated about 91,815 kwh/year when using diesel system only.

   In Bo,Sierra Leone, Mercy Hospital is using photovoltaic/diesel hybrid system. This system able to reduce electricity generation cost and the dependence on diesel fuel [3]. This hybrid system is proven to be inexpensive and cheaper than diesel only system. 72.2% reduction of generator operation time in dry season and 98.6% reduction in wet season is achieve with this solar energy plus diesel system. The reduction in generator operation time truly reduce the operation cost as well as the maintenance cost.  According to Mercy Hospital, the cost dropped about 37% during the dry season and 64% during the wet season.

   St. Damien Hospital in Haitian town of Tabarre also installed hybrid pv/diesel generator. According to the research, 18% of electricity is generated from the hospital and they managed to save about 106 litres of diesel on average day [4]. Lastly, Lugala Lutheran Hospital in Tanzania provide 40% of electricity for their own consumption, also when using pv/diesel generator. Pv/diesel generator is proven to be the most economical and have the best reliability [5].

   All these data provide enough reasons for hospital to install solar panels as their electricity generator. Hospitals can reduce the electricity cost as well as getting tax exemption. If the solar panels provide excess of electricity, we can just sell it off to the grid or store in a battery system for 24/7 power consumption.

References

[1]	N. Mat Isa, H. S. Das, C. Tan and A. Yatim, "A Techno-Economic Assestment of a Combined Heat and Power Photovoltaic/fuel cell/battery energy System in Malaysia Hospital," Energy, vol. 112, pp. 75-90, 2016.
[2]	T. Merkle, "Applied Solar Energy Plants In A Hospital in Northern Ghana," Renewable Energy, no. 1, pp. 454-456, 1994.
[3]	H. Jacobus, B. Lin, D. H. Jimmy and R. Ansumance, "Evaluating The Impact of Adding Energy Storage on The Performance of Hybrid Power System," Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 52, pp. 2604-2610, 2011.
[4]	A. Gallego, "Energy Storage," Off-grid 2.0, 12 2013.
[5]	A. Al-Akori, "PV System for Rural Health Facilities in Devaloping Areas," International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power System Programme, 2014.