Solar Cold Chain for Vaccines

The Solar Electric Light Fund has worked since 1990 on solar power for communities with no grid, and its vaccine cold chain work targets a specific failure: clinics that receive vaccines they cannot keep cold. In Benin's Kalalé District, SELF installed direct-drive solar vaccine refrigerators — no battery, which is what makes them reliable in places with no maintenance chain — alongside solar streetlights so patients could reach the clinic after dark. The refrigerators use an energy harvest control that diverts surplus power to charge clinic lights and phones rather than wasting it. A linked project combining solar-powered water and vaccine refrigeration reached around 40,000 people in West Africa. Roughly one in eight people worldwide depends on a health facility with no reliable electricity.