{"entity":{"id":"idea-acc-solar-microgrids-for-cancer-units","kind":"idea","name":"Solar microgrids so radiotherapy, pathology and drug fridges never lose power","aka":[],"tldr":"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.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Most of the world has almost no cancer care): WHO fact sheet, Cancer","url":"https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["radiation"],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-global-access"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"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.","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","cost":"medium","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-acc-solar-microgrids-for-cancer-units/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"radiation","kind":"section","name":"Radiation Therapy","route":"/fronts/radiation/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-global-access","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Most of the world has almost no cancer care","route":"/bottlenecks/b-global-access/"}]}}