Project Overview
Project Description
Build Health International Inc. (BHI), believes every person, wherever they live, should have access to quality, affordable care. BHI designs, builds, and equips quality healthcare facilities that are sustainable both for the communities they serve and for the environment. Its expert architects, engineers, and construction managers strategize solutions in some of the world’s most challenging settings, partnering with local talent and training workforces to strengthen health systems for the long term.
BHI’s solar portfolio is deepening alongside its experience building and designing infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The oraganisation has identified a need to better capture and share its expertise and learning—among our team members, and with partners in the field—to help advance and impact the space with sustainable systems and contextual projects that have longevity. Strengthening solar-related knowledge management will help improve documentation and assessment; generate funding; refine its solar training to build workforce capacity; contribute to the body of knowledge in the sector; and ultimately enhance the impact of its work.
This project would build on BHI’s current solar knowledge management and project documentation. As the sector expands and healthcare partners around the world seek environmentally sound solutions to their energy challenges, there is great value in capturing criteria for where solar is an effective option. The E4C Fellow will help build on existing project work, especially BHI’s current project to develop solar guidelines for implementation across LMICs; and capture key considerations for solar work in low-resource areas and approaches that BHI has used in the field.
Previous E4C Fellows have helped BHI strengthen workflows to better integrate solar panel design into Revit models and to project electricity and/or carbon footprint savings on projects through the use of solar energy. Leveraging these E4C projects, BHI envisions strengthening implementation of this work in projects and documenting this work to impact the sector.
The E4C Fellow may contribute to desk research and knowledge management activities including:
- Reviewing, repackaging, and repurposing BHI’s solar guidelines—a core technical document in active development with CHAI and global partners—into case studies, industry event briefs, and one-pagers
- Developing technically informed communication materials and synthesized reports for external purposes
- Enhancing BHI’s research and documentation of operations and management (O&M) requirements to ensure long-term functionality across low-resource settings
- Researching sustainability groups (e.g., Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction; Sustainable Energy for All) to identify and shortlist relevant communities of practice for BHI engagement; and identifying strategies to amplify the conversation around solar in the healthcare sector and to engage in knowledge exchange
Impact
Expanding solar power at healthcare facilities ensures reliable, uninterrupted electricity in areas that have faced difficult weather patterns, political unrest, and chronic fuel shortages. BHI-built Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais (HUM) in Haiti is one of the largest solar-powered hospitals in the world. HUM’s 1800-panel microgrid can produce more than 100 percent of the hospital’s energy needs during peak daylight hours. In Niger, BHI designed and built a hybrid solar array that dramatically reduced energy costs and blackouts at CURE Children’s Hospital, freeing resources to address specialty surgical needs of children with disabilities throughout the region. At Haiti’s St. Boniface Hospital, BHI installed a 780-panel photovoltaic system: a reliable source of clean energy that lowers fuel costs and minimizes the risks associated with diesel.
Eligibility Criteria
Skills / Experience:
- Required:
- Energy systems design + analysis
- Research
- Technical writing and documentation
- Design/presentation/training skills and commitment to learning exchange
- Desired:
- Implementing renewable energy projects in low-resource environments
Preferred fellow local experience (All projects can be completed remotely):
- N/A
Preferred timezone (when the Fellow should be available for meetings):
- Compatibility with EST (UTC-5), and EAT (UTC+3)
