Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Our distributed energy project is the first of its kind in Brazil. We have identified an urgent need for renewable backup power among 196 philanthropic hospitals ("Santa Casa hospitals"), who suffer from very high costs of energy, which is also unreliable. Santa Casa hospitals share the goal of delivering first-class medical attention for free to poor customers. Energy is one of their most costly line items -- each hospital is burdened by energy costs of up to R$400,000 (USD 121,000) per month. Some can be deprived of electricity for 1/2 a day or more, which creates life-threatening conditions for remote hospitals. The goal of our project is to reduce energy costs by from 20 to 30 percent in each hospital, while increasing power reliability to more than 99.9% and offsetting polluting diesel gensets, using solar PV, flow battery technology and in some instances, fuel cell technology. 
We will act as an energy service provider by offering up-front funding for installation costs of approximately USD 6 million per hospital, delivering returns of 15 ‚ 20 pct returns to investors backed 10 year power purchase agreements. We are working with a large installer and importing fuel cells for energy systems, as the first company to successfully do so. Our company has been named an official energy provider to the hospitals by the hospital association and we have MOUs with 3 hospitals, with others under negotiation. This project meets the new government distributed energy plan, and will be a template for hospitals and private sector energy consumers around the country. Brazil's development bank (BNDES) is required to refinance these projects at a long term, low cost debt.

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Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

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Mission Statement:

Each of Brazil's Santa Casa hospitals share the goal of delivering first-class medical attention to those with no ability to pay. Through charitable contributions, Santa Casa hospitals are able to sustain their service delivery to community.

The project is signing an energy services MOU with Santa Casa Itabuna hospital, one of 196 philanthropic hospitals of the Catholic Archdiocese in Brazil. As hospitals, they require secure power delivery, and as philanthropic organizations, costs are paramount. Our energy program is designed to reduce the hospitals' cost by from 20 to 30 percent, while increasing power reliability to more than 99.9%. We will provide a near carbon-neutral impact on the environment through the use of solar and flow battery technology.