History and Background of ELWA

ELWA Hospital was founded by SIM in 1965, to serve the medical needs in the community surrounding the ELWA Radio compound in Paynesville, Monrovia, Liberia. The hospital has survived two civil wars and was at the epicenter of the 2014 Ebola outbreak. In November 2016, the hospital opened a new 42,000-square- foot facility, contributed by Samaritan’s Purse. It is a full-service 100-bed health care institution, including a large 18-bed emergency room, three operating rooms, male, female and pediatrics wards, maternity and postpartum ward, laboratory, imaging department, pharmacy and outpatient clinic. Support services include a chaplain’s office, HIV-AIDS counseling and treatment program, and diabetes education program. ELWA Hospital is also training doctors and nurses for Liberia’s health care system.

African Missions Healthcare (AMH) contacted I-TEC in 2018 in pursuit of solar options for the ELWA Hospital campus. With diesel consumption at $40,000USD per month, ELWA is looking for ways to reduce cost.

In April 2019, the I-TEC team spent eleven days at ELWA surveying existing conditions and developing practical energy solutions that will substantially reduce ELWA’s energy cost and increase resilience for the hospital. As a result of this survey, I-TEC proposed a comprehensive energy system that ELWA could chose to do in four phases, as funds are available:

  • 584kW, grid tied solar array that would offset much of the hospital consumption on an annual basis and save $132,213 in diesel fuel per year.
  • A 250kW battery backup system that would meet the needs of the hospital
  • Additional 200kW battery backup that would meet the needs of the entire campus)
  • An additional 400kW, grid tied solar array that would offset much of the remaining load of the campus

AMH is currently soliciting donors to fund the system.  Its projected installation date is 2021.