Stakeholders champion clean energy for rural hospitals

The two-day conference was organised by Kenya's Ministries of Health and Energy, the World Health Organization (WHO), and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL). It addressed the energy gaps that hinder medical services across the continent.

Discussions centred on decentralising solar systems to provide reliable, climate-resilient, and cost-effective energy solutions for off-grid health facilities, especially in remote areas.

While discussing the need for renewable energy, Stephen Nzioka, the director of Renewable Energy in Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, pointed out that in Sub-Saharan Africa, 25,000 healthcare facilities operate without electricity, and an additional 70,000 experience unreliable power connections. According to WHO, one in four healthcare facilities in Africa lack electricity, and only half of hospitals have reliable access. This issue is severe in rural and remote areas.

Currently, Kenya has electrified 250,000 households and four hospitals using renewable energy, with plans to electrify an additional 343, 284 of which are health facilities in rural areas, through the Kenya Solar Access Project. The country aims to achieve 100% rural electrification by 2030.

In Zimbabwe, previous reports indicate that power outages have severely affected the quality of healthcare services. Issues include difficulty in moving wheelchair-bound patients to other floors when elevators are nonfunctional due to electricity shortages and pregnant women giving birth in dark maternity wards as hospitals and clinics face frequent power cuts throughout the country.

At a previous conference organised by the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, on November 28, 2024, discussions centred on sustainable energy solutions within the Sustainable Off-grid Solutions for Pharmacies and Hospitals in Africa (SoPhiA) initiative, focusing on off-grid solar energy for healthcare facilities in remote areas of Africa.

The WHO states that reliable energy in hospitals is a vital enabler of universal health coverage. Electricity is essential for powering basic services in healthcare facilities, ranging from lighting and communications to clean water supply. It is also critical for operating medical equipment necessary to safely manage childbirth, ensure immunisation, and perform most routine and emergency procedures.

However, as highlighted in the report Energizing Health: Accelerating Electricity Access in Healthcare Facilities, nearly 1 billion people in Africa rely on healthcare facilities that either lack reliable electricity access or have no electricity at all. Furthermore, urban healthcare facilities generally report greater access to and more reliable electricity than their rural counterparts within the same country.

Africa can learn from countries in West Africa, such as Togo and Nigeria, which have already made significant investments in solar energy for rural hospitals. Togo has electrified 314 health centres and provided 122 health centres with solar water heaters through the Projet d'appui au volet social du programme CIZO d'électrification rurale (PRAVOST) project, thereby ensuring proper hygiene and safe care.

Nigeria on the other hand has so far powered 100 rural hospitals with containerised solar hybrid systems via its Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and  plans to expand this initiative to an additional 400 primary healthcare facilities within the next year.

This means that renewable energy access for healthcare facilities is achievable. To accelerate this solution in Africa, support, financing, and investments must be scaled up swiftly.  Additional key actions include monitoring energy access in healthcare facilities, providing resources to design clean energy plans, and developing policies and financing to support sustainable energy solutions for the health sector's needs.