Rural areas across Africa still lack access to health care, schools, clean water and infrastructure, which leads to higher number of illness and poverty compared to urbanized regions. Sub-Saharan Africa has around 98,7452 to 120,000 (22,000 hospitals and 98,000 health posts) (public) health facilities of which approximately 26% have no access to electricity and only 28% of health care facilities, on average, had reliable electricity among the 8 countries reporting data. The African continent is predicted to be home to over half of the expected global population growth between 2015 and 2050, highlighting the importance of addressing population health in Africa for improving public health globally. Good health is a precondition for development. Medical health care has to cope with the poor electricity and water supply in the remote and rural areas of Africa. As a consequence, small local medical care centers often operate with polluted water, no cooling (of medicine), no air-conditioning, poor sanitizing etc. Half of the people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity, but have an enormous renewable energy potential, which just began to be harnessed successfully with off-grid solar PV throughout the region.
The objective of the SophiA project is to provide sustainable off-grid energy supplies, refrigeration, clean and safe water for rural and remote health facilities in Africa. SophiA will develop containerised solutions for hospitals using natural refrigerants, solar thermal energy and photovoltaics. The SophiA systems are reliable, modular and easily integrated into existing buildings and infrastructure. The systems will be manufactured in Africa, and they will be tested at four rural hospitals in remote regions of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi and Uganda.
The overall objectives of the project are therefore:
• To develop renewable, flexible and modular plug-in energy systems based on photovoltaics and thermal energy, which are adaptable, scalable and easy to integrate without the need to re-design existing infrastructrues.
• To design, build and test control and energy management systems towards ensuring cost efficiency and reliability
• To provide safe and clean water for all, including safe, pathogen free cold drinking water as well as deionized water and steam/hot water for medical care centers.
• To develop and test an innovative, solar powered refrigeration system using low Global Warming Potential natural refrigerants, providing a three-stage cascade refrigeration system and reliable cooling at +5°C, -30°C and -70°C.
• To develop new business and job opportunities, by using local resources in the manufacturing and installation of the SophiA systems.
• To develop materials and opportunities for knowledge exchange and capacity building, by involving local workforce in the installation process of the containers, as well as through dedicated trainings.
• To perform social acceptance studies to understand the acceptance of innovation and renewable-based solutions providing access to clean energy and safe water in the African continent
• To assess the sustainability of the SophiA solutions in environmental, social and economic terms, as well as provide roadmaps towards upscaling and uptake of the solutions.
