Last Friday, the Maxfield Park Health Centre hosted a ceremony to recognise the handing over and installation of a $1.8-million solar photovoltaic-lighting system in its car park in St Andrew.
The project was undertaken by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), in an effort to reduce electricity consumption in keeping with the ambitions of the National Energy Policy.
The system is expected to save the hospital an estimated $300, 000 (nearly 10 megawatts) annually, which translates to a 65 per cent saving on security lighting - a statistic which impressed the minister of energy and mining, Clive Mullings, who described it as "another step in the direction of energy efficiency".
The minister said he appreciated the project's success and noted that in developing countries governments had a tendency to speak too much about energy issues instead of actually moving to address them.
The PCJ and the ministry noted that they were hoping to continue their mission to create a shift towards the use of renewable energy sources and energy-saving technologies.
Lyttleton Shirley, chairman of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), said he was delighted with the accomplishment and welcomed the idea of more solar-energy usage, saying the ready solution would "assist in alleviating the high cost of electricity usage" in Jamaica, due to the dependence on oil.
The Maxfield Park Health Centre is a multi-purpose medical centre, which serves a densely populated urban area located in Kingston. It is one of only three Type Five facilities in the city, and provides service in a number of areas, including health promotion, curative and mental health, dental health, child guidance, specialist services and operates a dermatology clinic and pharmacy.
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