Feb 14, 2010

February 14, 2010 — Scottsdale based German photovoltaic manufacturer and distributor, CENTROSOLAR America (www.centrosolaramerica.com) contributed 7676 W of photovoltaic modules to assist in Haiti’s disaster recovery after the Jan.12th earthquake destroyed the country’s energy infrastructure.  Kerry Kalarney, owner of Sundance Solar Designs, LLC (www.sundancesolardesigns.com) designed and installed these solar electric systems with battery backup in four medical clinics throughout Haiti.

Kerry Kalarney has been installing solar systems for 30 years. He was working on his ranch in Olathe, Colorado (www.greenplaceranch.com) fixing his 1953 Super Cub plane when he got a phone call about Haiti.  He began making calls to companies he worked with to purchase equipment in order to build solar systems for medical relief. Many of the companies offered to donate the equipment or sell it at cost.  CENTROSOLAR was one of the companies that offered to donate modules. “We decided to go into Haiti and set up solar systems in public health centers to help those who were victims of the incident. Most of the companies provided equipment at cost or donated it. We needed refrigerators for vaccines, batteries, inverters, PV modules,” said Kalarney.

“I started buying equipment from CENTROSOLAR about a year ago when they first opened up in the U.S. When I called CENTROSOLAR to ask if they would want to help out, they were immediately forthcoming and responsive,” said Kalarney.

Facilitating the assistance to Haiti was not a small task.  In addition to the equipment, Sundance Solar had about 400 pounds of wire, conduit, and personal gear that had to be transported to Haiti. Kalarney called up his friend and solar colleague Robin Sanders and asked him if he wanted to help out in Haiti. They drove from Colorado to Miami chartered a plane and flew the equipment down.

“The challenge was to differentiate between deserving facilities and those out to just get their hands on the goods,” said Kalarney. Kalarney wanted to install solar that would have long term beneficial effects in secure areas only. Kalarney worked with David Doherty from the Associated Public Health Labs (APHL) who is in charge of the public health clinics in Haiti. “David knew which clinics were valid, and we installed our first system in Karfu which was 90% flattened. Our 1.8KW system services an area of 300,000 people. Kalarney and Sanders worked from sunup to sunset. It took two days to install one PV system per clinic.  Kalarney built a solar system for a medical base camp set up by Sean Penn.  Penn’s base camp has 35-40 doctors and nurses who fly in for one week shifts and rotate out. Kerry and Robin installed a total of four PV systems ranging from 1 – 2kW in size in two weeks.

Kalarney’s humanitarian efforts started well before the Jan. 12th earthquake. He has donated time and efforts in Africa and in Panama where he installed four solar systems for scientific research stations for the Smithsonian.  “I’m just a solar guy. We went there to do the right thing, and Centrosolar did it because they wanted to help,” said Kalarney.  Kerry is now back in Colorado, back to being just a solar guy and rancher back to restoring his Super Cub so he can track down his wayward cows.

Whitney Rauh is the Director Strategic Marketing, CENTROSOLAR America.