Providing electricity for rural health clinics is a challenge for many reasons – one of these is inherent tradeoff between system capacity and cost.  The better one understands the energy demands at the clinic, however – including both the timing and the level of energy demands – the better one can provide a cost-optimized solution.  Over the past year STG’s engineers have been designing software that can do just this, and this month we kicked off a campaign to measure energy consumption at a number of clinics in Lesotho to improve our understanding of the minute-by-minute energy consumption at these facilities on different days of the week and months of the year and as the number of patients visiting and the weather changes.  Collection of these data will both help STG to improve design of energy systems and help the Ministry of Health (a partner in this work) to allocate funding for capital and recurring expenditures for each of their clinics.

This month we would like to introduce you to the new members of our team!  Next up is Lefu Maqelepo, and we’ll let him tell you more about himself in his own words.

“I am currently in the 4^th year of my 5 year mechanical engineering program the University of Botswana. During my studies, I focused on energy technologies as well as product design and manufacturing. At STG, I am currently doing my industrial training requirement for my program and I will be returning to start on my thesis in the next semester.”

Read the full spotlight in the attached pdf!  LefuSpotlight