Renewable energy technology converges with medical care as health professionals work to treat children suffering from severe pneumonia in resource-limited settings.

Oxygen therapy, facilitated by oxygen concentrators, is essential to treat pneumonia-infected lungs until antibiotics are administered. In developing areas, concentrator devices are not always available, and if they are, electricity supply may not be reliable enough to power them around the clock.

Solar panels on the roof of a medical facility in Uganda. Image source: Michael HawkesA team from the University of Alberta’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases designed a solar-powered oxygen delivery systems to provide a reliable oxygen source for the treatment of pediatric pneumonia. A system of 25 photovoltaic panels (each 80 W) delivers power to an oxygen concentrator that strips oxygen out of the air. Eight charged batteries supply nighttime power for the device.

With a grant from Grand Challenges Canada, a Government of Canada initiative that supports global health research, solar-based systems were installed at two hospitals in Uganda.

“We piloted it on a group of 28 children and it showed that you could use the solar panels and batteries to run the concentrator 24/7. We treated children with pneumonia and the system worked,” says Michael Hawkes, device inventor and assistant professor.

A larger randomized controlled trial showed that solar-powered oxygen delivery works just as well as the conventional method of oxygen delivery using cylinders. The hospitals continue to use the solar-powered systems following the end of the trial period.

The researchers are now working with the Clinton Health Access Initiative in hopes of soon expanding the system’s use to 80 hospitals across Uganda.