A solar power station has been installed at the St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Lviv. Its capacity is 52 kW. The power station works together with batteries, providing more stable electricity supply for medical equipment and four operating rooms. Doctors continue to provide emergency assistance to children during electricity outages.
The funds for the installation of the solar power station amounted to €27,595, raised abroad during a fundraising campaign by the Czech organization Nesehnuti and the German charity fund WirWerk. The installation cost was €1,132,405.35. The equipment—solar panels and batteries—was provided by the American company Quintas Energy and the Polish company Menlo Electric.
“When I learned about the energy deficit in Ukraine, I felt like I could help. I turned to the team to unite efforts to find this opportunity. It is an honor for us to support Ukrainians and the hospital in Lviv both financially and with our knowledge in system design,” said Declan O’Galloran, the CEO of Quintas Energy.
The solar power station was installed above the first block of the operating department. It will supply energy to the neurosurgery, two surgical, and otolaryngology operating rooms, equipped with energy-consuming devices: lamps, anesthesia machines, laparoscopic stands, microscopes, coagulators.
The St. Nicholas Hospital is one of the main children’s hospitals in the rear. During the war, it has accepted 350 wounded children with mine-explosive, gunshot, and shrapnel injuries. Here, children weighing from 500 g up to adulthood are treated and operated on. Assistance to the wounded is provided within the framework of the UNBROKEN KIDS project. The hospital admits 28,000 children annually and consults about 90,000.
“An operating room is a place that cannot be left without electricity for a moment. Devices for artificial ventilation of the lungs, lamps, all electrical equipment used for surgeries—such as laparoscopic stands, surgical drills, and coagulators—require electricity. Quick connection to the generator usually damages the equipment. During one of the outages, sensitive boards on microscopes were damaged, and gas analyzers that perform gas state analyses of blood in infants were broken. This delays our work and prevents us from providing even more effective help to children,” said Ivan Miskiv, the director of the Children’s Hospital of St. Nicholas.
The solar power station was installed as part of the