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    Solar for clinics

    Solar for clinics: Reliable power for every clinic, so care never stops in the dark.

    Close to 1 billion people are served by health centers without reliable electricity. Bringing them clean power would cost roughly $5 for each person they serve, once.

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    Ryan K. Hertel · heyitskenton

    The problem

    What we're up against.

    • Clinics without reliable power.

      Close to 1 billion people in low- and lower-middle-income countries are served by health centers without reliable electricity. For about 433 million of them, the health center has no electricity at all.

    • Sub-Saharan Africa most of all.

      In sub-Saharan Africa, 15% of health facilities have no electricity, and only 40% have reliable power.

    • Births in the dark.

      Before solar lighting arrived at rural maternity units in Uganda, staff performed only 42% of essential care steps during births at night.

    • Oxygen out of reach.

      In low- and middle-income countries, only 30% of people who need oxygen for an illness or surgery get enough of it.

    • Outages cost lives.

      In one study in Ghana, the risk of death in a health facility rose 43% for each day the power was out for more than two hours.

    What works

    Proven, and ready to grow.

    • Solar oxygen saves children.

      In a randomized trial in 20 rural hospitals in Uganda, solar-powered oxygen cut the risk of death for children short of oxygen by 48.7%.

    • Light for births at night.

      In a randomized trial in Uganda, solar light raised the quality of maternity care by 4 percentage points, and staff used it in 83% of births at night.

    • Fewer pneumonia deaths, at scale.

      In 38 remote health facilities in Papua New Guinea, solar oxygen with better training was linked to a pneumonia death rate about two fifths of what it had been. It wasn't a randomized trial.

    • Power raises care.

      Reliable power in rural Gujarat raised the chance that children got key vaccinations and pregnant women got antenatal care, and a systematic review found electrification linked to better antenatal care, vaccination and emergency care.

    • A lot of good for the money.

      By one modeled estimate, solar oxygen cost about $26 for each child treated and $542 for each life saved.

    What a family could fund

    Where the money goes furthest.

    • The whole gap, priced.

      Electrifying every health center that needs it would cost about $4.9 billion once, roughly $5 a person. Clinic power still isn't a priority for climate and energy funds.

    • Upkeep, budgeted.

      Running and maintaining a clinic's solar system costs about $400 to $500 a year, a small line that keeps the lights on.

    • The Solar Suitcase.

      We Care Solar's Solar Suitcase cost $2,220 to build in 2018, plus $250 to install it and train staff. The group has powered health facilities in 49 countries, by its own count.

    • Solar for vaccines.

      Gavi's cold chain program has installed more than 66,000 vaccine fridges, about 60% of them solar, by its own count.

    • Solar for Health.

      The UN Development Programme has helped bring solar power to more than 1,000 health centers and storage sites in 15 countries, by its own count.

    Honest limits

    What money can't promise.

    • Parts fail.

      A year after the Uganda trial, only 60% of sites had every part working. The main reasons were faults, theft and missing parts.

    • Install and forget doesn't work.

      Programs that install solar and walk away leave broken systems within a few years, and new batteries can cost up to 35% of the original price.

    • Batteries wear out.

      In a charity's survey of 24 clinics in Malawi, 87.5% had solar systems that had failed or were underperforming.

    • Solar isn't always reliable.

      A year of monitoring at six hospitals in Sierra Leone found that solar didn't automatically mean more reliable power.

    • Power isn't care.

      Evidence on what electrifying clinics does for health is still scarce, and even with reliable light, the quality of care can stay low without better training and supplies.

    Hard questions

    Asked and answered.

    1. You might ask

      Isn't this a job for governments?

      Ryan

      In the long run, yes: the lasting model is a public clinic with upkeep in its budget. But grants matter most where health budgets are thinnest, and clinic power still isn't a priority for climate and energy funds.

    2. You might ask

      What happens when the batteries die?

      Ryan

      Too often, the lights go out: new batteries can cost up to 35% of the original price, and many programs never budget for them. So a family's initiative pays for upkeep and new batteries, not just panels.

    3. You might ask

      Is power really the bottleneck?

      Ryan

      Sometimes. Where power makes a treatment possible, as with oxygen, children's risk of death fell by 48.7%. Light alone helped only modestly, because staff, supplies and training matter too.

    In the slider

    See what your fortune could do here.

    Solar for clinics

    The slider prices this cause with these numbers:

    • Bringing health centers in poorer countries reliable power costs roughly $5 for every person they serve, by Sustainable Energy for All's estimate.
    • The whole need is everyone served by a health center without reliable electricity, close to 1 billion people.
    • Power isn't the same as care: in a randomized trial in Uganda, solar raised the quality of maternity care by 4 percentage points, and a year on, many sites had parts not working.
    Try it in the sliderTalk to Ryan

    More of the Blueprint

    Keep reading.

    23 more chapters on the way

    Back to Keep 100

    Sources

    Every number in this chapter, and where it came from.

    1. Source 1: Electricity in health-care facilities: fact sheet (opens in a new tab)

      World Health Organization, 14 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    2. Source 2: Towards a renewed commitment to energy for healthcare (opens in a new tab)

      Sustainable Energy for All, 7 April 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

      From a co-author of the World Bank, WHO and IRENA report Energizing Health. A one-off cost, rough by its own account.

    3. Source 3: Reliable electricity to advance quality health care in low-resource settings (Vinci, Kwong and others) (opens in a new tab)

      The Lancet Global Health, April 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A review led by the World Health Organization, the newest summary of the evidence.

    4. Source 4: Impact of Solar Light and Electricity on the Quality and Timeliness of Maternity Care: A Stepped-Wedge Cluster-Randomized Trial in Uganda (Rokicki and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Global Health: Science and Practice, December 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.

    5. Source 5: Reducing global inequities in medical oxygen access: the Lancet Global Health Commission on medical oxygen security (opens in a new tab)

      The Lancet Global Health, March 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

    6. Source 6: Solar-powered O2 delivery for the treatment of children with hypoxaemia in Uganda: a stepped-wedge, cluster randomised controlled trial (Conradi and others) (opens in a new tab)

      The Lancet, 14 February 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A randomized trial with 2,405 children. Deaths are counted within two days of starting treatment.

    7. Source 7: Solar-powered oxygen, quality improvement and child pneumonia deaths: a large-scale effectiveness study (Duke and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Archives of Disease in Childhood, March 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Not randomized: deaths compared before and after.

    8. Source 8: Effect of reliable electricity on health facilities, health information, and child and maternal health services utilization: evidence from rural Gujarat, India (opens in a new tab)

      Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, February 2019. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Compares rural Gujarat, which got reliable power, with a neighboring state.

    9. Source 9: Building power-ful health systems: the impacts of electrification on health outcomes in LMICs (opens in a new tab)

      Psychology, Health & Medicine, 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A systematic review of twelve studies.

    10. Source 10: Estimated Cost-effectiveness of Solar-Powered Oxygen Delivery for Pneumonia in Young Children in Low-Resource Settings (opens in a new tab)

      JAMA Network Open, June 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A modeled estimate, not a measured one.

    11. Source 11: Our Impact (opens in a new tab)

      We Care Solar. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The organization's own account.

    12. Source 12: How solar power is revolutionising immunisation in the most remote parts of the world (opens in a new tab)

      Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, 5 June 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Gavi's own account.

    13. Source 13: Solar for Health (opens in a new tab)

      United Nations Development Programme. Checked 16 October 2026.

      UNDP's own account.

    14. Source 14: Powering Healthcare in Malawi (opens in a new tab)

      SolarAid, March 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A charity's survey with Mzuzu University: a small sample.

    15. Source 15: Are we on the path to sustainable health electrification? Lessons from hospital solarisation in Sierra Leone (Wall and Osunmuyiwa) (opens in a new tab)

      International Growth Centre, December 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Twelve months of minute-by-minute monitoring at six hospitals.