![]() ![]() Smaller clinics run closer to about $2,000. It costs about $8,500 to install a system at public health care centers, including lead-acid batteries that store power for use at night. The Bengaluru-based not-for-profit has raised funds from Indian and international corporations and coordinated with the local government since 2017. The hospital, Government Maternity, a bare-bones facility that serves thousands who can’t afford private health care, is one of 251 medical facilities in the Raichur district that runs on rooftop solar under a program spearheaded by Selco Foundation. ![]() In Raichur, for example, temperatures can soar to 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) in the warmest months. And it's becoming even more indispensable where heat and weather extremes are increasing due to climate change. In semi-urban and rural regions of India and other developing countries with unreliable power grids, decentralized renewable energy - especially solar - is making all the difference in delivering modern health care. “We don't even know when power is cut or when it has come back,” Jones said. So is the need to use flashlights to see during one of the hospital's roughly 600 births per year, as staff sometimes had to do amid a sudden blackout if the old generators weren't working.įor Martha Jones, a senior nurse who has helped deliver countless babies, the reliability that solar has brought has been a revelation. The diesel generator that used to provide emergency backup - spewing planet-warming gases and toxic smoke within breathing distance of newborns every time it was running - is gone. It wasn't until the hospital installed rooftop solar panels a year ago that it could depend on constant electricity that keeps the lights on, patients and staff comfortable and vaccines and medicines safely refrigerated. RAICHUR, India (AP) - In the searing heat that often envelops Raichur, an ancient town in southern India, a ceiling fan that spins without interruption brings sweet relief for the newborn babies and their mothers at the Government Maternity Hospital.īut such respite wasn't always guaranteed in a region where frequent power cuts to India's overmatched electrical grid can last hours. ![]()
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