World’s First Solar Ambulance Just Passed Critical Tests
A third of Africans live a significant distance from health services. And electricity access is a major issue at medical facilities across the continent, limiting what care can be offered.
However, the good news is that a group of students from the Netherlands has developed a solar powered vehicle called Stella Juva that can help bring healthcare to those who may struggle to access it.
The Stella Juva ambulance carries medical equipment including an X-ray machine, an ultrasound, and a fridge to keep vaccines cool. It has solar panels on its rooftop so it can charge while driving. Extendable solar panels that can fold out when it’s not moving give it extra charging area. Essentially, it operates like a mobile health clinic. Instead of ferrying patients around, it transports medical equipment, and the energy to power it, to places that don’t have those things.
The students have now conducted a 'real world' test of the vehicle in Kenya to see if it could manage long distance travel across tricky terrain, and if it could power the onboard medical equipment once it reached remote communities. The results were excellent. It proved that while stationary, Stella Juva generated more energy than it consumed while using all its onboard medical equipment simultaneously. That, say the students, demonstrates that it can operate independently, without traditional fuel or plugging into charging infrastructure.
“We hope to inspire industry and society to use innovative technologies like Stella Juva to tackle some societal problems,” Yarno Basten, a 23-year-old team member who is studying sustainable energy technology, told CNN.
Images credit: Bart van Overbeeke / STE
