Philanthropy helps NRG Solar Profits?

    CEO of NRG Energy, David Crane, has opened his eyes to the helpless in Haiti after encountering a life-changing experience with a naked young boy of about 10, emerging from underneath his car. He and his daughter had traveled to Port au Prince to volunteer with the Clinton Global Initiative and had left the reception to return to their hotel when they noticed a body from underneath the car. "This kid looked at me," Crane remembers. "There was no life in his eyes. No hope. Complete nothingness. I was so shocked. There were many things I could have done for that kid. I just stood there and did nothing, except act like a dumb American."
    Since then, NRG energy had committed an amount of $1 million through the Clinton Global Initiative and has a partnership with Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) to bring solar power to rural areas in Haiti. Crane hopes that this charitable action will spur the power of solar energy to develop economically in financially poor countries. This also helps create business opportunities in the Caribbean for the company. "The basic idea is demonstrate the flexibility of solar, particularly in distributed applications, and the difference it could make in a country that does not have a functioning electricity system," he said.
    In these last couple of years, NRG and its partners have developed many projects in Haiti to help in terms of their lacking of stable power. They have worked together to install a number of small-scale solar systems such as completing projects in 20 schools already and at a fish hatchery known as Lashto Fish Farm. The company also participated in installing solar panels at an orphanage run by the nonprofit organization, Partners in Health.

A Hospital Running on Solar Power?

       Have you ever heard of a hospital running on solar power technology? Well, if you haven't, there apparently is one in Haiti. It's called "Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais," known as HUM, and because of the generous donations from Boston-based nonprofit Partners in Health, it was made possible.

As you can see here, the roof of the hospital is entirely covered with solar panels in this newly constructed hospital, featuring a total of 300 beds for hospitality.

   It actually serves as a great benefit for Haiti, due to their instability when the power grid is concerned. In Mirebalais, a rural town in Haiti, it is claimed that power goes out on an average of 3 hours per day. Because of this dilemma, many patients, undergoing surgeries, can constantly be jeopardized as well as other tasks performed in hospitals. Thus, they decided to go solar as many corporations in other nations have.

      The hospital is officially opening in March but before their official opening, the solar panels on the rooftops have received 139 megawatt hours of electricity, which is enough to charge 22 million smartphones and offset 72 tons of coal. With this excess amount of electricity, it will be fed back to Haiti's national power grid, giving a much-needed boost to their power sources. Amazing on how solar panels can just make a huge impact for a nation, huh?