Solar Cooling and Hot Water for Nicaragua's Largest Hospital
A lighthouse project for the promotion of solar cooling in Central America
Project Facts
Location
Nicaragua
Managua
Project Volume
1-5 Mio. EUR
Applied Financing Solutions
Concessional Loans, Guarantees
Project Dates
Start: 2015
In operation since/from: 2018
The Story
With approximately 400 beds, the Hospital Militar Dr. Alejandro Dávila Bolaños in Managua is Nicaragua’s largest and most modern hospital. Together with the Austrian collector manufacturer GREENoneTEC and the engineering company Caverion, SOLID planned, delivered and commissioned a solar thermal system as roof installation at the hospital, which began full operation in early 2018. The installation with a collector field area of 4,450 m² covers the hospital’s entire hot water demand and contributes up to 50% to the air conditioning of the building. This is made possible by the buffer storage with a volume of 70 m³ and the high solar fraction in the region.
The Managua Hospital has become a real lighthouse project with a high replication potential in the Central American region. Given the fact that solar cooling remains a young and lesser known technology, it effectively builds local capacity and increases the awareness for the potential of sun power to either heat or cool buildings in a sustainable and economic way.
Success Factor | Hero Moment
The project was financed with the help of a soft loan by the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) acting as a guarantor. This concessional financing instrument used in the international export industry to contribute to sustainable development in recipient countries provided the favorable conditions needed to realize the project. Since Nicaragua had no soft loan agreement with Austria before this project, the Managua Hospital solar plant opened up this financing opportunity for other Austrian companies to follow.
Submitter
S.O.L.I.D. Gesellschaft für Solarinstallationen und Design mbH, Austria
Other Involved Stakeholders
GREENoneTEC, Caverion, National Cleaner Production Centre of Nicaragua (NCPC), UNIDO
Contact Mail
office@solid.at
Website
www.solid.at
