BY IRWIN ANGIKI
Leading local solar experts – the Superfly Limited – has been acknowledged by Australia for pulling of the Good Samaritan solar hybrid project on time, according to plan and with quality materials.
Speaking at the handover of the Good Samaritan Hospital (GSH) new solar hybrid power system on Wednesday, Lindsay Buckingham, minister-counsellor of the Australian High Commission said Superfly has set standard not only for the country but for the Pacific.
“I would like to especially acknowledge Superfly for its professionalism, delivering a project on time, on budget and as planned and we are so proud to be partnering with a local business to help deliver local outcomes for this community.”
The Good Samaritan solar project is one of four renewable energy projects across the Solomon Islands, which in turn are part of an Australian programme across the Pacific and Timor Leste to provide access to renewable and reliable energy for communities, especially in the rural areas.
The project was launched in February this year in partnership with Superfly to instal the solar hybrid system for GSH.
“This project is the first to be completed not only in Solomon Islands under this programme, but also in any Pacific country. This is the first,” Ms Buckingham said.
“It really is a significant milestone, and it was a project delivered to plan, delivered on time and with high quality materials only eight months after we launched this programme.
“Projects like this partnership between Superfly, the Good Samaritan Hospital and the Ministry of Health are a blueprint of what we can achieve together.”
The GSH services more than 62,000 people from surrounding communities in the North Guadalcanal plains, including patients from Honiara who seek help there.
The project does away with GSH’s costly dependency on generator power, which had occupied around $170,000 of the hospital’s budget per year.
This free energy means GSH can now save millions for other hospital infrastructure in the future.
The $1.4 million project is supported under Australia’s Pacific Climate Infrastructure Financing Partnership (PCIFP) initiative.
