Good public policy, good business decisions and good public health. The Chiricahua Community Health Centers hit the policy trifecta of the last couple years.
Chiricahua Community Health Centers just flipped the switch on four new solar and battery microgrids at its Douglas facilities… the result of several years of work by Chiricahua’s leadership to solve a very practical problem: The electricity goes out a lot in their part of the state especially during monsoon season.
Chiricahua Community Health Centers goes solar with micro grids
Douglas sits at the far end of the APS electrical grid in SE Arizona. Monsoon thunderstorms, extreme heat, and sometimes wildfires can knock out power. That’s a problem for anybody – but especially for a healthcare facility… and Chiricahua was dealing with outages on a regular basis.
A Way Better Solution Than Generators
Chiricahua initially looked at backup generators. But generators big enough to keep entire clinics operating are expensive. They need fuel and maintenance, produce air pollution, and fuel (usually diesel) is hard to find during a long emergency.
Chiricahua’s leadership found a better answer.
Working with Collective Energy, they developed a solar system with 312 solar panels and 500 kilowatt-hours of battery storage spread across four Douglas facilities. They turned it on last week.
See the turn on ceremony
The now operational solar system/ battery combo is expected to generate about 347,000 kilowatt-hours per year… enough to provide 100% of the buildings’ electricity during normal operations. When the regular electrical grid goes down, the batteries can keep critical operations running.
Chiricahua Community Health Centers turns on four microgrid solar array to strengthen healthcare in Douglas | Douglas Dispatch
Projects like this require a lot of upfront money. Community health centers generally don’t have piles of cash in reserves sitting around waiting to finance solar arrays and giant batteries… especially when they know they have to prepare for the onslaught of the coming loss of patients because of the impacts of HR1 on reduced Medicaid (AHCCCS) eligibility.
The Inflation Reduction Act made all the difference for them.
The law created and expanded clean-energy tax incentives in ways that nonprofit healthcare organizations could finally use. Chiricahua’s project tapped the federal Investment Tax Credit along with a low-income community incentive, bringing federal tax credits to about 50% of eligible project costs.
Collective Energy financed and developed the project through an energy services agreement, so Chiricahua didn’t have to come up with a big chunk of money upfront.
The IRA tax credit and its transferability provisions made it possible to structure Chiricahua’s payments at roughly what it was already paying for electricity while the health center builds equity in the system.
A Tale of Two Public Policies
One federal law… the Biden era Inflation Reduction Act helped Chiricahua make an investment that will strengthen its finances and infrastructure for years.
Another federal law… the Trump-era H.R. 1, is about to make Chiricahua’s job considerably harder. Starting in January, H.R. 1 will impose new work requirements and twice-a-year eligibility renewals on many Arizona Medicaid expansion adults. Other coverage changes are coming too (e.g. a reduction in the money from the AZ hospital assessment).
Those changes will increase the number of uninsured patients showing up at community health centers around the country… especially in rural areas where are a disproportionate number of Medicaid members (Chiricahua is in rural AZ of course).
So, every dollar Chiricahua can save on overhead is a dollar that can potentially be put toward doctors, nurses, dentists, medications and patient services instead of an electric bill.
From Douglas to the National Stage
Chiricahua celebrated the official “switch-on” of its four microgrids last week during National Health Center Week. Now they’re spreading the word nationally with other community health centers.
The National Association of Community Health Centers is holding its annual Community Health Conference in Las Vegas August 16–18, where Chiricahua will share what they did and how they did it with health-center leaders from around the country.
CHI – Community Health Conference – NACHC
Their solar array is now dramatically lowering their operating costs. Batteries are now providing emergency backup and bridge power when the clouds cover the sun. Cleaner electricity is reducing pollution…. and money that used to fly out the door for electricity to APS can be used instead to help patients (and to prepare for what’s coming because of H.R.1).
Kudos to Chiricahua Community Health Centers and its leadership for having the foresight to work on this for several years and get it across the finish line.
And credit where credit is due to the Inflation Reduction Act.
