Abstract—Critically underdeveloped countries often lack the technologies and properly established medical standards to meet the basic needs of their patients. According to numerous studies, high in-patient and infant mortality rates in these countries have been linked to inadequate medical treatment and unsanitary environments. The main barriers to obtaining the proper tools, supplies, and equipment needed to address these issues include the high initial costs, maintenance and upgrade costs, as well as accessibility of materials. This report focuses on a renewable energy solution to properly store vaccines for transport to rural communities in Northern India that lack the health infrastructure and access to medical care.
The aim of this project was to develop a working prototype of a portable vaccine refrigeration unit powered by solar energy and battery storage. Experimental analysis showed that over a 48-hour period a single, one hundred-watt solar photovoltaic module was able to successfully provide adequate current to simultaneously charge a deep-cycle battery and power a com- mercial thermoelectric cooler for approximately twenty hours. This finding supports the limited viability of such a system under the approximate solar conditions of Uttar Pradesh, India during the winter months. Future research and tests using the data obtained from larger sized photovoltaic units and higher capacity energy storage units could possibly serve as the basis for the development of a more stable and robust unit with a higher degree of operability and autonomy.
