In 1960, a Medical doctor and two Sisters from the Medical Mission Secular Institute set up a roadside clinic to treat leprosy in Chetpet, Tamil Nadu. This selfless act laid the foundation stone for what is now the St. Thomas Hospital and Leprosy Center. As the community was not receiving any medical care, they also offered to provide basic healthcare to the people.

Now, the hospital offers services, such as a clinical laboratory, blood bank and pharmacy. They have also setup the Dr. Maria Aschhoff School of Nursing to train nursing and midwifery to the economically backward women in Chetpet and surrounding villages. Furthermore, they also run an old age home, outreach health clinics and a Rehabilitation Training Centre for the differently-abled and other underprivileged, young people.

To continue with their selfless service for the Chetpet community, they made a conscious decision to reduce their dependence on traditional sources of energy that are polluting the environment and switch to a clean and renewable source of energy. This move would not only bring down their running costs but also make them self-reliant with regards to their energy use.

The Hospital approached Sunlit Future to design and install a 33kW on-grid solar energy system with Net Metering. Also, Sunlit Future replaced 700 tube lights and 250 fans with modern, energy efficient lights and fans, installed solar water heaters producing 7,800 litres of hot water, and replaced their conventional 5HP diesel powered electric water pumps with seven solar water pumping systems.

The 33kW solar energy system was installed in three days by our team, along with students of CODEP ITI, an industrial training institute teaching technical skills to the marginalized youth living in Chetpet.

The system had a significant impact on the energy consumption of the building. The new fans and lights were using 50% and 40% less energy, respectively, and were offering annual savings of INR 6,24,640.