ABSTRACT: Summary A potential response to the COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with long-term benefits is to provide electricity for medical equipment in rural health centers and communities. This study identifies a large gap in the electrification of healthcare facilities in SSA, and it shows that decentralized photovoltaic systems can offer a clean, reliable, quick, and cost-effective solution. The cost of providing renewable electricity to each health facility by a stand-alone PV system is analyzed for a given location (incorporating operational costs). The upfront investment cost for providing electricity with PV to >50,000 facilities (mostly primary health posts) currently without electricity is estimated at EUR 484 million. Analysis of the accessibility and population distribution shows that 281 million people could reduce their travel time to healthcare facilities (by an average of 50 min) if all facilities were electrified. Graphical abstract Highlights • In rural sub-Saharan Africa, over 50,000 healthcare facilities lack electricity supply• PV and battery systems offer a clean, reliable, and cost-effective solution• The estimated investment needed would be just under EUR 500 million• 281 million people could reduce journey time to electrified facilities by 50 min average Context & scale Our results shed new light on the potential of decentralized energy systems to offer a reliable, quick, and cost-effective way to increase access to electricity for rural healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa. This study identified more than 55,000 such facilities without electricity access and analyzed the costs and benefits of powering each of these with solar photovoltaic and battery storage systems. Our results can provide a basis for planning electrification programs for health facilities in rural sub-Saharan Africa and can be useful to policy makers, researchers, consultants, and other stakeholders involved in electrification planning and healthcare improvement. The level of granularity, covering community, national, and regional levels, is particularly relevant to prioritizing the allocation of limited governmental funding, highlighting where electrification is most needed and likely to have the greatest impact on health services. Effective strategies for financing the electrification of healthcare remain a challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, Moner-Girona et al. identify a large gap in the electrification of healthcare facilities, and they show that decentralized photovoltaic systems can offer a clean, reliable, quick, and cost-effective solution. These findings provide a bottom-up geographic information system (GIS) framework for policy makers, researchers, consultants, and other stakeholders bridging two elements of the sustainable development goals: “energy for all” (SDG7) and “healthcare for all” (SDG3).
