Solar Feasibility Study for Primary Healthcare Facilities
Site assessment, load profiling, system sizing, capex and O&M analysis, implementation risk review.
- Client type
- Humanitarian / development-sector institution
- Decision supported
- Funding and procurement preparation.
- 01
Reviewed primary healthcare facilities running on intermittent grid and aging diesel backup, with cold chain and maternity loads at risk during outages.
- 02
Built per-site load profiles, sized PV-plus-storage concepts against verified clinical load rather than nameplate appliance lists, and re-estimated capex and lifetime O&M.
- 03
Outputs gave the funder a defensible basis to size the investment envelope and sequence procurement by facility tier.
Context
The client was preparing a multi-facility solarization investment across primary healthcare units serving displaced and host communities. Existing electrification was a mix of unreliable grid extensions and undersized diesel gensets. Cold chain breaks, refrigeration loss, and after-dark maternity care were the operational pain points driving the request.
Approach
We visited a representative sample of facilities, measured actual consumption over a working week, and reconciled it against the equipment inventory and staff routines. Load profiles were rebuilt from observed clinical activity rather than vendor appliance sheets. PV-plus-storage concepts were sized against three demand scenarios (current, recovered, expanded) and screened for roof condition, security, and O&M access.
Findings
Earlier vendor proposals had oversized arrays by 30–60% against the verified load while undersizing storage for the night-time refrigeration window. Several sites had structural and shading constraints that ruled out roof-mount; ground-mount with security fencing was the realistic option. Lifetime O&M, not capex, was the binding affordability constraint on the smaller facilities.
Recommendations
We proposed a tiered system catalogue with per-tier cost envelopes, a phased rollout sequenced by clinical criticality, and a procurement package that bundled commissioning, spares, and a two-year O&M floor into the EPC scope. A site-level investment memo accompanied each concept design.
- Verified clinical load profiles beat appliance-list sizing, every time.
- Storage autonomy for the refrigeration window is the cost driver, not peak PV.
- Procurement that bundles commissioning and a multi-year O&M floor outperforms lowest-capex bids.
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