The growth of solar energy could be a game-changer in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in rural areas of Africa that lack electricity supply.

Hugh Whalan, CEO of West African off-grid solar company PEG Africa, said that it is an opportune time for the technology to be widely used.

The vaccines require refrigeration of up to -70 Celsius for the Pfizer vaccine and -20 Celsius for the Moderna variant.

“Solar refrigeration will be a game-changer for getting the COVID vaccine out to the 600M+ people in Africa who have no electricity. The tech already exists and it can be reliably used in remote areas,” he said.

PEG Africa launched its solar refrigeration technology in December 2020 to originally support small fishermen and women who would benefit from the refrigeration as a service pegged on their pay-as-you-go model. The pilot targeted Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal.

Whalan said: “PEG Africa, and companies like it, that finance and distribute solar tech, can play an enabling role in this effort. Importantly, solar refrigeration isn't only relevant to vaccines, but also in increasing incomes for smallholder farmers and traders by avoiding food spoilage that costs billions of dollars per year.”

According to the Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2020 by Lighting Global and World Bank, the refrigeration market in Africa is huge but nascent. It estimates that the addressable market in Sub-Sahara Africa was US$11.3 billion in 2018.

“Affiliate companies sold less than 10,000 off-grid refrigerators in H2 2018 and H1 2019, and only a portion of these are for productive use.

It added that companies are still testing business models and a wide variety of technologies to meet large potential PULSE markets for cold storage, refrigeration, and agri-processing.

“Meanwhile, in addition to refrigeration, many solar milling business models and technologies are in the pilot phase and not yet commercially deployed. Beyond agri-processing, even more, specialised productive use applications have emerged in specific value chains such as poultry, dairy, and coffee,” the report stated.