St. Lucia’s National Mental Wellness Center has launched a new solar photovoltaic system that will enable it to operate on renewable energy.

The hospital, which provides specialized services to citizens suffering with mental illness, now has the capacity to generate 25 kilowatts of renewable energy.

The Ministry of Sustainable Development noted that the achievement is a “major milestone” and that it will facilitate continued operations at the hospital in the event of national power outage.

St. Lucia currently has approximately 500 kilowatts of solar PV capacity installed — a number that is increasing in accordance with the government’s goal to increase renewable energy penetration in the national grid by 35 percent by the year 2020.

The new system at the National Mental Wellness Center was funded by the government of Taiwan as part of the solar energy component under the Sustainable Energy from Concept to Action Project.