Spotlight: Rural Health Program

Chiricahua Community Health Center serves a rural population of approximately 125,000 people in Cochise County, located in Arizona on the US-Mexico border. This area of Arizona frequently experiences power outages and is also prone to extreme heat, wildfires, and monsoons. 

Reliable power is essential at Chiricahua Community Health Centers, the only Federally Qualified Health Center in the county and the largest primary care organization in southeastern Arizona, so the network of facilities set about installing solar + storage with Collective Energy. The project will cover the Chiricahua family medicine and dental centers, Early Childhood and Pediatric Centers of Excellence (including a Women, Infants and Children Program clinic with eligibility and enrollment services), an administrative building (housing the finance department, and health center eligibility and enrollment services), an administrative call center, and a full-service pharmacy that is co-located with an acute care clinic. 

Plans are underway to install a fifth system when construction is complete on the new Chiricahua health center in Willcox, AZ. Collective Energy has been working with the Chiricahua team since the construction planning phase and is excited to see this project completed. It's already a DOE award winner!

This system was installed at no cost to the Mendocino Community Health Center (MCHC) through two different avenues. The $186,000 solar installation was financed by Collective Energy through an Energy Service Agreement (ESA). Collective Energy installed, maintains, and operates the solar PV system with no upfront cost to the site, and in return, MCHC will make monthly payments based on the energy production at a set kWh rate. 

The $480K Energy Storage System was funded through the California Public Utility Commission’s SGIP program. The Self-Generation Incentive Program offers cash rebates to critical community facilities for installing energy storage. This program prioritizes communities living in high fire-threat areas, those that have experienced two or more utility Public Safety Power Shut-off (PSPS) events, as well as low income and medically vulnerable customers.  

The Lakeview Clinic serves over 30,000 patients annually in rural Northern California and offers services including primary care, dental, women’s health, and behavioral health.