As India's electrical grid strains, rural hospitals and clinics find reliable power in rooftop solar
In the searing heat that often envelops southern India, a ceiling fan brings sweet relief for the newborn babies and their mothers at the Government Maternity Hospital in the ancient town of Raichur
RAICHUR, India (AP) — In the searing heat that often envelops Raichur, an ancient town in southern India, a ceiling fan that spins without interruption brings sweet relief for the newborn babies and their mothers at the Government Maternity Hospital.
But such respite wasn't always guaranteed in a region where frequent power cuts to India's overmatched electrical grid can last hours. It wasn't until the hospital installed rooftop solar panels a year ago that it could depend on constant electricity that keeps the lights on, patients and staff comfortable and vaccines and medicines safely refrigerated.
The diesel generator that used to provide emergency backup — spewing planet-warming gases and toxic smoke within breathing distance of newborns every time it was running — is gone. So is the need to use flashlights to see during one of the hospital's roughly 600 births per year, as staff sometimes had to do amid a sudden blackout if the old generators weren't working.
For Martha Jones, a senior nurse who has helped deliver countless babies, the reliability that solar has brought has been a revelation.
