Dr Gnaneshwar no longer thinks twice about flipping on light switches, using the computer or getting print outs at the Yelheri primary health centre in Karnataka’s Yadgir district.
Up until 2022, the primary health centre at which Gnaneshwar is the medical officer had only erratic electricity supply. It had to rely on a power back-up system that would run out in hours. Power cuts meant performing operations by torch or candlelight, baby warmers not working smoothly and no proper cooling for medicines or vaccines.
That changed three-and-a-half years ago. The installation of a solar energy system brought continuous power supply to the health centre – and immense relief. In addition, the staff living nearby do not have to sweat it out, particularly at night.
“Now the laboratory and the storage facilities run seamlessly and even patients are happier,” said Gnaneshwar. “There is no darkness now.”
The problems that the Yelheri centre dealt with before solar power are still faced by most primary health centres across India. Some of them are even in need of basics such as water supply.
Yelheri is one of the 2,500 Karnataka government health facilities to be powered by solar energy, said Huda Jaffer, director of the SELCO Foundation, a social enterprise based in Bengaluru.
Karnataka’s Saurya Swasthya or“solar for health” initiative was launched with the SELCO Foundation in November 2024 with the aim of powering 5,000 health centres. The state has 12,000 health centres, including primary health centres and sub-health centres.
As of 2024, SELCO had helped set up power systems in 8,000 health centres across India. The target for 2025 is to increase this to 10,000 centres and over 25,000 by 2027, Jaffer said.
Across India, solar power is helping rural health care centres overcome a huge infrastructure gap. As a factsheet by the Power For All initiative explains, rural health centres provide crucial “last-mile medical services such as immunisation, child deliveries and neonatal care, all of which cannot be delivered without regular electricity supply”.
In remote regions, solar power is a gamechanger.
Lalengliani Khawlhring, a pharmacist at Hlimen Urban Primary Health Centre in Mizoram’s Aizawl Municipal Council, had joined the centre in 2015 when it did not have constant power supply. Since 2024, when a solar power system was installed, the freezers in the medicine store room have operated smoothly.
Vaccines must be stored at a specific temperature or else they spoil.
“I am no longer tense now about medicines and vaccines,” Khawlhring said in a conversation in April.
Solar not only provides power but also climate resilience to vulnerable communities, especially in states like Odisha, that are prone to extreme events and disasters, said Jaffer. In Odisha, frequent cyclones risk destroying power lines, which leaves solar as a decentralised and reliable source of power during such instances. In remote, rural areas, solar often becomes the only energy source.
Solar-powered healthcare, however, remains a philanthropic initiative, with the support of corporate social responsibility funds. In Karnataka, for instance, the state government and SELCO Foundation have been prime movers with substantial grants from the IKEA Foundation and the Waverly Street Foundation.
Powering healthcare
Nearly 97% of Indian households are electrified, according to a 2020 study by the thinktank Council on Energy, Environment and Water. However, access to power for primary health centres is lower: a 2019 study by the thinktank showed that though 91% of primary health centres had electricity connections in 2012-’13, power supply was irregular for nearly half.
The health ministry’s Rural Health Statistics 2021-’22 said that 3.7% of 24,935 rural primary health centres and 11.4% of 1,57,935 rural sub health centres did not have power supply.
Years before Karnataka’s solar push, Chhattisgarh had begun tapping solar energy for health infrastructure. Up until 2006, one in every three primary health centres in Chhattisgarh did not have power or suffered due to erratic supply.
As of 2023 however, nearly all of the state’s 800 primary health centres and most district hospitals and community health centres are powered by solar energy, according to Jain.
In a conversation in April, Sanjeev Jain, sustainable energy consultant and former chief engineer with the Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency, said, “We were energy security experts and not medical experts but we found that there was increased footfall of patients and staff was retained due to better facilities.”
A typical primary health centre has a mean daily electricity requirement of around 45.8 kWh or kilowatt hours. A solar system of 5 kWp capacity – kilowatt peak measures solar photo voltaic output – can meet 70% of its peak demand. The Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency deployed 2 kWp solar systems to augment electricity supply at the primary health centres.
According to Power For All, Chhattisgarh’s solar energy initiative helped improve healthcare services for 80,000 patients per day and saved up to 80% energy costs for the health centres. Jain said the next target is to install solar power in about 5,000 sub-health centres in Chhattisgarh, with support from the health ministry.
Smaller states in the North East, like Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Karnataka in south India have been trendsetters in powering health centres with solar electricity. In Meghalaya, all health centres use solar power while in Mizoram, 60% of health centres run on solar electricity.
Ninety per cent of Tripura’s primary health centres run on solar power. States such as West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are working on similar programmes. Even so, the share of solar power production in India is 5.20% while coal remains a major source of power at 74%.
Solar troubleshooting
Apart from installing solar systems, independent research organisations such as the World Resources Institute India help nonprofits conduct energy audits and integrate energy efficiency and clean energy measures in their health centres.
Audits are crucial to assess the energy needs of the centres, say Lanvin Concessao and Rishikesh Mishra of World Resources Institute, India, which has helped set up solar power connections for 35 charity-run hospitals in rural India.
“The audits also tell us about the energy efficiency of their present medical and non-medical appliances used in the hospitals or centres and on how the solar system should be designed,” said Mishra.
Setting up solar and battery storage involved a lot of ground work in the form of designing energy systems and capacity building, and training staff on the specifics of energy installation. Often, the remote monitoring systems do not work due to bad internet connectivity or software problems, said Concessao.
Concessao said there is a strong push for solar in the Indian Public Health Standards, 2022, and the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health. This has made budgetary allocations possible for solar systems to be built and maintained, backing research and development practitioners and building awareness.
SELCO’s Jaffer said the aim is not only solar power systems but more efficient medical technology and better health facilities that factor in heat stress and use power efficiently. The Centre’s Surya Mitra programme includes training for Arogya Raksha Samitis or health committees at the village level to understand solar systems and skill training for the youth in solar systems.
Other than installation costs and maintenance, as always with solar energy, there are challenges of using batteries and disposing of them. Most solar systems rely on lead acid batteries but lithium ion is slowly gaining popularity. In Chhattisgarh, Jain said all new systems are using lithium ion which can last for 10 years.
Meena Menon is a freelance journalist and a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds.
This story is part of The 89 Percent Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.
