The partnership between HAMAP-Humanitaire and the Congregation of the Antonine Sisters of Lebanon has been running since 2006. A first project made it possible to build a self-contained treatment plant on the hospital grounds to prevent any discharge of wastewater into the environment, which was a problem for the neighbourhood.
The supply of drinking and domestic water was then improved by building an artesian well and a system to treat and distribute water within the facility. Finally, between 2016 and 2019, at the height of the Syrian crisis, two projects to improve care for the women and children of the region were carried out: the fitting out and commissioning of a paediatric intensive care unit, and then of a new maternity department within the hospital.
Since 2019, Lebanon has borne the full force of combined economic, financial and political crises. In four years the local currency has lost 98% of its value in an economy that is mainly import-based and dollar-indexed. This has serious knock-on effects for the country's energy production, as the state has cut its fuel imports for power stations, which are themselves ageing and increasingly inefficient.
This multi-dimensional crisis has a lasting impact on the hospital's activities, on its survival and on medical provision in the region. With only two hours of mains electricity a day, the facility suffers a glaring energy shortfall. The hospital has acquired two generators of 200 and 320 kW to cover the gaps caused by electricity rationing, but fuel costs more and more and weighs on the hospital's budget, which can no longer stretch to the investment needed to maintain a quality of care that is crucial for the region. The facility is also struggling to keep its care staff, whose purchasing power has fallen drastically, with 20% of staff leaving the country since 2019. Essential medical care, provided on a non-profit basis to a population of 100,000 Lebanese and 150,000 Syrian and Palestinian refugees in acute hardship, is therefore under threat.
The hospital and HAMAP-Humanitaire teams have therefore worked together to define this project, which aims to minimise the use of the generators, and so fuel costs, in order to rebalance the facility's budget. To that end, a self-contained renewable energy system is planned, combining solar photovoltaic modules, wind turbines and storage batteries. The hospital's location is well suited to the conditions required for a hybrid renewable solution to succeed. The diagnostic study carried out in 2022 showed that the region enjoys favourable winds at least 315 days a year and 300 days of sunshine a year. On that basis, the project rests on the achievable assumption of supplying 60% of the hospital's energy needs through the installation of 624 solar panels and 8 wind turbines, thereby reducing the share consumed via generators to 40%.
The complementary nature of wind and solar power ensures continuity of supply, allowing savings of nearly 50% of the energy budget and, as a result, reinvestment in health care and in paying staff salaries. The environmental impact of the hospital's energy production will also be reduced, thanks to lower CO2 emissions and other pollutants. This is an innovative solution and a first step towards the hospital's energy independence.
In the long term this project aims to maintain and consolidate quality care provision in the region, and it also potentially opens up prospects for HAMAP-Humanitaire to roll out this energy solution with other local actors, in line with our approach to protecting the environment
The energy independence of the Notre-Dame de la Paix hospital is financially supported by the Crisis and Support Centre of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
