Are we on the path to sustainable health electrification? Lessons from hospital solarisation in Sierra Leone
This policy brief presents findings from a year-long study of solar-powered healthcare facilities in Sierra Leone. It highlights the challenges of achieving reliable, 24/7 electricity in hospitals despite solar installations, emphasising the need for remote monitoring systems and sustained funding to ensure consistent power for critical care.
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Wall-and-Osunmiyiwa-Policy-Brief-December-2024.pdf
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- Approximately 15% of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have no access to electricity, and only half of hospitals have reliable electricity access (WHO, 2023). This electrification gap has broad consequences, impacting the use of healthcare equipment, increasing vaccine spoilage, and limiting health services and quality care provision in already-disadvantaged areas of SSA (WHO et al., 2023).
- Solarisation has become the de facto electrification strategy for both on- and off-grid healthcare facilities in SSA. While recent rollouts of renewable energy sources have provided an increasing number of healthcare facilities with clean electricity access, these sources often fail to provide the stable, constant electricity (i.e. 24/7 availability of uninterrupted power supply) needed to realise the promise of electrified healthcare provision.
- This project leverages a remote monitoring approach to collect minute-by-minute power quality and reliability data for 12 consecutive months at six government hospitals in rural and urban settings in Sierra Leone. This policy brief focuses on these six hospitals retrofitted with solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage systems and sheds light on the impact of these decentralised renewable energy solutions on facility-wide electricity supply.
- This policy brief highlights the need for solar electrification initiatives to require remote monitoring systems and reporting – and to provide adequate funding for remote monitoring and verification efforts – in order to ensure reliable, 24/7 electricity for critical care health facilities.