SHARM EL SHEIKH – The International Renewable Agency (IRENA) announced Tuesday that it will put $1 billion into new efforts to electrify health facilities, as well as food storage and agriculture, using solar power.
The initiative aims to address a healthcare gap where an estimated 1 billion people around the world rely on health facilities without or under-supplied electricity, said IRENA Executive Director Francesco La Camera. says.
He was speaking at the high-level event “Enabling Health: Accelerating Access to Power in Healthcare Facilities” hosted by the World Health Organization at COP27.
According to La Camera, his agency is working with the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Burkina Faso, Malawi and Mali, to better understand the gaps in energy access and the energy gaps in their health systems. is evaluated. Interfering with the provision of medical services.
a WHO-sponsored study of 11 sub-Saharan Africans, 2013 Countries found that 26% of health facilities had no electricity at all, and on average only 28% of facilities had access to reliable electricity. Even at the hospital level, only 34% of hospitals have reliable electricity. During the pandemic, a massive push was underway to add refrigeration capacity to health centers in Africa to deploy COVID vaccines that required a reliable cold chain. However, systematic investment is still lacking, along with comprehensive data on gaps and needs in the field.
But even with the limited data available, it was clear that power shortages and health care impacts were particularly severe in Africa, said the event, which included representatives from the World Bank and WHO’s Somalia office. panelists agreed. Leading solar power entrepreneur in India.
Their discussion focused on energy needs in health care facilities, the potential for a shift to renewable energy sources, and the funding needed for such initiatives.
“In light of COP28, we are partnering with governments, philanthropic organizations, foundation trusts, charitable foundations, the World Bank, the private sector among other stakeholders and, of course, the WHO, to strengthen lifts and livelihoods. We aim to commit $1 billion to achieve this, following initiatives that connect people and livelihoods through renewable energy solutions in the renewable energy, adaptation, agriculture, food and health sectors,” said La Camera of IRENA. made a commitment to
World Bank also doubles funding to focus on mini-grids
The IRENA initiative adds to the World Bank’s existing $1.3 billion annual investment in renewable energy access for farms, schools and health facilities in off-grid communities, said Riccardo Puliti, vice president of the World Bank’s Infrastructure Division. said. But of that amount, he admitted, less than $100 million goes to medical facilities.
Investments in medical facilities accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted.During that period, banks developed and spread improved tools Estimate facility energy requirements to enable more reliable electrification of the cold chain and thus storage of vaccines.
But the World Bank now plans to increase funding for community-based mini-grids, from which not only health facilities but also homes, schools and other community functions could all benefit.
A mini-grid is a distributed energy facility, which may include solar arrays, storage batteries, and generator backup, to generate and distribute power within small communities too far off the grid to receive reliable service from conventional power sources. can be used for
“The idea is to provide mini-grids for 500 million people and 100,000 health facilities by 2030. To achieve this, he plans to triple the $1.2 billion a year.Pretty said.
Learning from Nigeria and Somalia
Among sub-Saharan African countries, Somalia ranks as one of the least served. About 85% of Somalia’s population has no access to electricity. Only 28% of health care centers in the East African country have access to electricity and only 27% of the population have easy access to healthcare, said Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO representative for Somalia, also attending the event. said he did.
Electricity costs in Somalia range from $1 to $2 per kilowatt hour, while in neighboring areas $0.02 to $0.03.
Malik called the plight in Somalia “social injustice” and explained that emergency surgeries and pediatric procedures are often performed under kerosene lamps or candlelight.
Inevitably, the lack of access to electricity also contributes to the country’s high infant mortality rate.
“A child born today (in Somalia) is 16.5 times more likely to die before the age of five,” Malik said. “This is not the child’s fault, it is because there are no medical facilities that can provide medical services. There are no refrigerators to store vaccines. are missing.”
In January 2021, Somalia’s Ministry of Health, with the support of WHO, will: Trial operation of oxygen supply system using solar power generation At a public hospital in Galmdug. This has saved the lives of several children who have been hospitalized with respiratory problems such as suffocation, pneumonia, accidents and trauma.
Following this, the system was also installed in four more hospitals. Then, in 2022, the government also began scaling up other solar energy systems to provide building-based power to 100 primary health care centers.
Dr Malik said the reason the WHO has endorsed equipping Somalia’s health facilities with solar energy is because it is the most practical solution for an arid country that receives more than eight hours of sunshine a day.
Cost was also a key factor in this decision, he said. “Medical facilities and laboratories spend between $8,000 and $10,000 to pay their electricity bills (from grid services or diesel fuel-based generators). You’ll only pay $30 for it and your electric bill will be free.”
He added that solar power will also help reduce medical waste of poorly stored medicines and vaccines.
Similarly, Abubakar D.Aliyu, Nigeria’s Federal Minister of Electricity, shared his experience of switching his country’s health facilities to renewable energy.
The experience began when two health facilities in every district of the country designated to receive vaccines were equipped with solar energy.
The government has also equipped at least one million homes with solar panels in the past year, the minister said. The goal is for him to electrify 6 million homes by the end of 2023.
“And I know it can happen. If we have a common will, if we have the will to do it, it will happen,” he declared.
Cross-sector collaboration is the key
When it comes to the renewable energy transition, funding can be an obvious obstacle to achieving the goals, but what is often lacking is political will. Serco Indiais a Bangalore-based social enterprise heavily involved in national solar initiatives.
selcoindia, Partnership with the IKEA Foundationaims to install solar energy systems in 25,000 medical facilities over the next four years. “He, with 150 employees, is a very small organization like SELCO, but with 25,000 [facilities] For the IKEA Foundation, other institutions have to do 20 times more. And by 2026, we should stop talking about solarizing health, he declared.
He also added that more efforts need to be invested to harness the innovation capacity of the private sector.
“If you see this as an electrification problem, you miss an opportunity… It’s not about solar power. It’s a combination of innovations that spurs further innovation. ”
La Camera, on the other hand, emphasizes the need to install the necessary basic solar infrastructure, which can be used to expand solar power generation. “The industrial sector should work together,” he said.
We also need to encourage industries in the most underserved regions such as Africa to produce solar equipment at cheaper or subsidized prices.
Puliti noted that unlike five years ago, solar arrays and batteries are affordable and competitive in nearly any environment.
In denser urban areas, more reliable grid-based power using a mix of renewable and non-renewable sources is likely to be a more near-term goal, he said. I was. However, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a “large urban-rural divide” and rural areas are unlikely to be connected to the grid in the near future.
“In sub-Saharan Africa, 52% of the population has no access to electricity at all,” he said, contrasting with countries like Somalia and the Central African Republic where access to electricity is minimal. , added that the city has an 80-85% electrified grid. .
“So we have to work on both, having the city powered, usually on the grid, and then off-grid of all kinds as much development as possible … with batteries. We need to understand that solar and batteries are competitive with everything we can think of.Five years ago, solar cells weren’t competitive.Now they are.” he explained.
“(Can this be achieved?) only by working together between countries, financial institutions, institutions such as IRENA, WHO and civil society..” said Pretty. “This is different than 10-12 years ago when[causes]were largely ignored. I have a strong feeling that we are trying to overcome this.”
Image credit: Mega Kaveri/HPW.
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