Since the beginning of the year, Berlin-based company Qinous has been ensuring a clean energy supply at Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, Haiti with the help of its battery system. The compact lithium ion battery system provides for daytime grid stabilization, allowing for 100% penetration of solar power from a 230 kW roof-mounted PV system and complete shutdown of diesel generators during the day.
“Haiti is very sunny, but the power supply in many places is still largely provided by expensive and environmentally harmful diesel generators simply because the grid infrastructure is lacking,” says Steffen Heinrich, Chief Technical Officer at Qinous. “Our battery system makes the secure delivery of renewables possible precisely under such circumstances since it works completely independently of the grid. It takes over the ‘grid-forming’ function of the diesel generator, thereby allowing the latter to be switched off entirely. Surplus electricity is stored and saved for later use. At the same time, the system regulates the hybrid network, thereby assuring the stable and secure operation of the PV system. The diesel generators come online only when the sun stops shining and the batteries have discharged.”
The Qinous battery balances power supply and demand in order to assure efficient provision of power and to minimize the use of diesel generators. According to the company, the PV battery project significantly reduces the annual costs for fossil fuels and upkeep of the diesel generators. It also produces a reduction of CO2 emissions of approximately 200 tons per year.
“In Qinous, we’ve found a competent partner for implementing the PV project and true experts on energy storage and system control,” says Rolf Maibach, Board Member of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles. “It was especially helpful that the Qinous engineers installed the battery system together with our on-site Haitian team and thoroughly trained the staff before the system entered into service. This guarantees that the local team possesses the necessary know-how to ensure a smooth operation of the system.”
An integrated monitoring system enables the hospital’s power supply to be constantly observed and optimized. From its headquarters in Germany, Qinous analyzes the gathered data in order to ensure an efficient supply and determine any further development of the technology needed.
Qunous plans to fit an additional battery system with a capacity of 500 kW/500 kWh in Tabarre, a district of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, where it will provide power to a pediatric hospital and social campus.