They are students who invented a “clinic without a plug”: the solar ambulance that can travel 800 kilometers

Instead of taking patients to a hospital, a group of European students tested the idea of taking a small clinic to them. Their vehicle, Stella Juva, traveled more than 800 kilometers across Kenya, including dirt roads in the Narok region, to assess whether a solar-powered ambulance could work where infrastructure is scarce.

The project was developed by Solar Team Eindhoven, a student team linked to the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. The trial took place with Amref Health Africa, one of the continent’s major health organizations. One destination was Mosiro, a community whose local health center has no connection to the electricity grid.

When Stella Juva stops, it can unfold extra solar panels and become a mobile consulting room. The panels power medical equipment without a plug or an external generator. During a two-day test, the team ran the planned medical equipment simultaneously. Solar Team Eindhoven and Amref said the panels generated more electricity than the instruments consumed while the vehicle remained stationary.

That result applies to the vehicle’s use as a clinic, not to its entire journey. The equipment it can power includes an ultrasound machine, a portable X-ray unit, a defibrillator, and refrigeration systems for medicines and vaccines. Its developers said the configuration used in Kenya could have served around 200 people during the two-day trial, although no real patient consultations took place.

Stella Juva has a 50-kilowatt-hour battery and 542 solar cells spread across its roof and deployable panels. It weighs about 1,350 kilograms and measures nearly five meters long. The team says it can travel up to 715 kilometers on paved roads in favorable sunlight, while estimating average off-road range at about 360 kilometers. Those figures come from the project team and have not yet been independently tested under standardized conditions.