Why private health facilities are turning to solar for power

Kenya is seeing a growing shift towards solar energy.[Courtesy]

Access to a reliable power supply is essential for healthcare facilities. Clinics, maternity wards, operating rooms, medical warehouses and laboratories, all require electricity to deliver safe and life-saving medical services.

Unreliable electricity can disrupt essential healthcare services, compromise the safety and quality of medicines and vaccines and put the lives of patients at risk.

Power outages can be caused by frequent planned blackouts, load shedding and voltage fluctuations. Others result from natural events, such as power lines being brought down by uprooted trees or damaged during heavy rainfall.

Yet, in Kenya, many healthcare facilities, particularly those in remote areas, face frequent power outages and blackouts, while others remain off the national grid altogether.

 World Health Organization (WHO) data shows that approximately 15 percent of health-care facilities in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries have no access to electricity.

 “In sub-Saharan Africa, only half of hospitals have reliable electricity access. The energy access challenge is higher for health-care facilities in remote and rural areas,” the report says.

 Kenya Power's 2024/25 annual report shows that customers experienced an average of 113 hours of power interruptions, equivalent to 9.4 hours per month or nearly five days cumulatively over the year.

 For health facilities, such interruptions make it difficult to maintain the cold chain for storing vaccines and medicines, laboratory operations, operate life-saving equipment for maternal and newborn care, adequate lighting and reliable water supply.

 Westside Healthcare director, Evans Majune, says he has faced these challenges for the past nine years.

 He says the facility, located in Malaba, Busia County, has repeatedly lost temperature-sensitive medicines and other medical commodities when power disruptions persist for several days.

 “Recently, we lost more than 20 vials of insulin and tetanus injections after prolonged power outages affected our refrigerators,” he says.

 The outages have also damaged nine of the facility’s 15 computers, as well as refrigerators, bulbs and other essential equipment.

 During power outages, Majune recalls his staff using mobile phone lights while attending to patients, including mothers during deliveries.

 He notes that repeated equipment repairs and replacements make it difficult for the small health facility to invest in other areas.

 To keep essential services running, he invested in a fuel-powered generator.

 Majune was speaking during the Cytek Solar Limited and the Rural and Urban Private Hospitals Association (RUPHA) Green Health Solarisation partnership launch in Nairobi.

The event, dubbed ‘Powering Healthcare, Protecting Lives,’ aims to solarize over 780 RUPHA member facilities nationwide.

RUPHA Chief Executive Officer, Cynthia Munene, says approximately 3- 5 percent of private hospitals' operating budget is consumed by energy cost diesel, tariffs, and generator maintenance.

Therefore, she explains, this initiative directly addresses the twin crises of unreliable grid power and rising operational costs in Kenya's private healthcare sector.

She reveals that some members who participated in the pilot project have already solarised their facilities and are finding it easier to manage them at lower costs while enjoying a more reliable power supply.

 “Members who have solarised their facilities are more resilient, no longer experience power interruptions and have reduced their energy costs by 40 to 60 per cent,” she says.

 Munene shares, solarisation strategy dates back to 2020, but implementation has only begun now because they had not yet found the right partner.

 She says that before planning the solarisation programme, they conducted a survey whose findings showed that 97 per cent of the facilities surveyed were entirely reliant on Kenya Power. Of these, 76 per cent relied on diesel generators as backup power.

 About 66 per cent of the facilities reported experiencing power outages either daily or weekly, while 78 per cent said the outages had a moderate to high impact on their operations.

 The biggest barriers were high installation costs, cited by 84 per cent of respondents, and lack of financing, reported by 56 per cent.

 Munene explains that the two challenges are closely linked, as the high upfront cost of solar systems makes financing a major hurdle for health facilities.

 Cytek Solar Company Managing Director, Robert Gitemi, says the signing brought together two essential forces: healthcare, which exists to preserve and restore life, and renewable energy, which provides the power that enables that mission to continue.

 “Electricity in healthcare is not just electricity. It is the power that enables the doctors in this room to carry out the noble task of preserving lives,” he says.

 Africa is one of the continents with the highest number of sunshine hours per year. Yet, the continent continues to lag in the adoption of renewable energy.

 Through the Green Healthcare Financing Program, the partnership removes upfront capital barriers by offering lease-to-own arrangements and power purchase agreements, enabling facilities to adopt clean energy without straining cash flows.

 Gitemi explains: “We are using, a lease-to-own model, where the client pays a relatively small deposit and then pays the remaining balance over a period of time.”

 During the system design and installation process, they conduct data logging to understand the facility’s electricity consumption patterns during the day and at night. This enables them to properly size the solar system and account for different consumption scenarios.

 “We want to ensure that the facility can run primarily on solar, while other sources of energy can serve as backup when necessary,” he says.

 Each project is designed to ensure that what the facility currently spends on electricity is roughly equivalent to what it will pay for the solar solution, or less.

He says solar will become the primary source of electricity, while Kenya Power will serve as the backup.

 Cytek Solar Company will continue to provide support, monitoring and maintenance of the solar systems at the health facilities.

 Majune expects the system to provide reliable electricity, automatically switching to solar when grid power fails and reducing interruptions to critical services.

 He discloses that solarisation of his facility costs Sh1.7 million. He will pay an initial Sh500,000, with the balance settled through instalments roughly equivalent to its current electricity bills.

 Beyond reliable power, Majune is optimistic solar energy will reduce equipment damage, noise and generator emissions, improve security lighting and create a healthier working environment for staff, patients and the surrounding community.

 At Favour Medical Services in Kajiado County,  solarisation has emerged as a solution to unreliable and costly electricity supply.

 Director, Joseph Kariuki shares, the shift to solar power has transformed the way the facility operates, reducing power interruptions, cutting energy-related costs and protecting expensive medical equipment from damage caused by power fluctuations.

 “Before the installation, we experienced significant challenges with electricity. Frequent power outages disrupted procedures and interfered with the normal protocols of patient care,” says Kariuki, adding that interruptions were particularly challenging during critical medical procedures.

 Kariuki says the erratic electricity supply also affected the facility's finances: “Every month, we would receive a new bill, often with different figures, making it difficult to predict and manage our expenses,” he says.

 The facility which started 14 years ago, now operates without power blackouts and relies entirely on solar energy.

 For Kariuki, the transition has demonstrated that reliable renewable energy can play an important role in strengthening healthcare services.

 Daniel Wanjiku, an environmental expert and CEO of Ecosave Africa, says diesel generators used as backup power sources are noisy and highly polluting.

 These generators are among the worst options because they emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, as well as diesel particulate matter.

 Wanjiku explains that, a 100kW diesel generator can generate about 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, depending on its operating hours and fuel consumption.

 “Solarisation is therefore not only a cost-saving measure but also pollution prevention as well as climate adaptation measure. It reduces diesel pollution, protects public health infrastructure and builds climate resilience,” he says.

 Solar systems produce no exhaust fumes and operate quietly, creating a cleaner and more conducive environment for patients and healthcare workers, particularly in wards and other sensitive areas.

 The transition to renewable energy also supports Kenya's wider climate action and clean-energy goals.

 As a rule of thumb, Wanjuki says solar should cover 60–80 per cent of the daytime load, while batteries should provide power for critical nighttime loads.

 For healthcare providers, therefore, solarisation is not only an investment in reliable electricity but also a step towards cleaner, more climate-resilient healthcare.

 RUPHA Chairman Mohamed Ali wonders why, despite the abundance of solar energy, healthcare facilities continue to face challenges linked to reliance on the electricity grid.

 He explains that electricity is not just a utility but a clinical input, with healthcare outcomes directly linked to its availability and reliability.

 “Imagine a situation where an expectant mother is on the operating table at 2am and the power goes off. Yes, you may have a backup generator and other alternatives, but you still have to rely on an ageing generator, battery packs and other backup systems. There are many risks involved,” he explains.

 Ali raises concerns about the use of generators as backup power sources in health facilities, particularly those located near maternity wards.

 He explains: “You can imagine the fumes from those generators being released near patients we are trying to treat. At the same time that we are providing treatment, we could be exposing patients to harmful fumes. It is a catch-22 situation.”