# Solar microgrids so radiotherapy, pathology and drug fridges never lose power

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-acc-solar-microgrids-for-cancer-units/  
OnCo record `idea-acc-solar-microgrids-for-cancer-units` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Cancer units in poorer countries lose treatment days, spoil drugs and damage machines during power cuts. Solar panels with batteries sized for the cancer unit would remove that failure point.

## Summary

Voltage instability and outages shorten linac component life, interrupt fractions, spoil temperature-sensitive drugs, and halt slide processing. Hospital solar microgrids with battery storage are now cost-competitive with diesel in most of Africa and South Asia. Designing the microgrid specifically for the cancer unit's load profile, with the linac on a conditioned circuit, is a bounded engineering project with quick payback.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Cancer units on a dedicated solar-plus-battery microgrid will cut power-related treatment interruptions by at least 80% and reduce linac component failures within two years compared with grid-plus-generator units.
- Rationale: Off-grid solar transformed vaccine cold chains and rural clinics; the same approach applied to the highest-value equipment in a hospital has an obvious return.
- Proposed test: Install at five units, log outages, interruptions, fraction completions, and component replacements before and after, alongside fuel-cost savings.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: engineering

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (Most of the world has almost no cancer care): WHO fact sheet, Cancer: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer

## Connected records

- fronts: [Radiation Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/radiation/)
- bottlenecks: [Most of the world has almost no cancer care](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-global-access/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/idea-acc-solar-microgrids-for-cancer-units.json