The use of solar energy in the health sector has brought many dividends for African countries. The World Health Organization (who) had initiated a project 15 years ago for the application of solar energy for refrigeration of vaccines in remote areas with no other energy sources. Now, photovoltaic refrigerators are being widely used in Africa. In Zambia, all health centres have converted from gas and kerosene refrigerators to solar units and some centres also have solar water-heating and lighting. In Zaire, 38 per cent of the refrigerators are solar while Uganda and Kenya are steadily increasing the number of solar units in use.

However, compared to kerosene or bottled gas, solar energy has proved to be more expensive. "Because of this we decided that it was time to use solar power more broadly in health centres