A team of Dutch students has unveiled what they believe is the world’s first solar-powered ambulance, a vehicle designed to bring medical care to the most remote areas of the globe.
The two-seater ambulance, named Stella Juva, was presented Tuesday by students from Eindhoven University of Technology. The sleek white-and-yellow vehicle is equipped with solar panels on the roof that power both the engine and medical devices, including X-ray machines and defibrillators.
According to africanews.com, the ambulance can reach a top speed of 120 kilometres per hour and is built for off-road terrain. On a sunny day, it has a range of 715 kilometres, and its solar-charged battery ensures operation at night or in cloudy conditions.
‘Stella Juva is fully equipped to deliver medical healthcare in hard-to-reach areas,’ said project leader Mathijs van Gerven, a 21-year-old biomedical engineering student.
Unlike traditional ambulances, the vehicle is designed to bring healthcare to the patient rather than transport them to a hospital. It contains testing kits for tuberculosis, cooled storage for vaccines, and ultrasound equipment for pregnant women.
The team plans to travel to Kenya next month to test the vehicle in real-world conditions.
Femke Maurits, Partnerships Manager at Amref Health Africa, a humanitarian organisation providing health services in African countries, highlighted the pressing need for such innovation.
‘The issue that many African countries have is that the distance between very remote villages and healthcare facilities is really big,’ Maurits told AFP. ‘There’s little public transportation, fuel is very expensive, electricity networks are unreliable. So a really cool innovation like the Stella Juva can help us solve such big challenges in healthcare delivery.’
Many team members put their studies on hold to work on the project, which took a year to complete. The front dashboard shows speed and battery power, while medical equipment is stored in the rear.
During a test ride on flat concrete roads in Barneveld, central Netherlands, the ride was smooth. But Van Gerven acknowledged that challenges will be different in remote Kenyan terrain.
‘There is a robustness that we need to take into account if we want to drive off-road… where the healthcare really needs to be delivered,’ he told AFP, showing spare tyres and shovels in case the car needs to be dug out.
Stella Juva is a prototype, and Van Gerven stressed the need to scale up for real impact.
‘I mean, we are 23 students and we built this within just one year. The technical industry should be able to do this way better and way faster,’ he said. ‘So, we would like to invite any technical company and industry partner, come talk to us. We would like to scale this up with you.’
Maurits noted that a key advantage of a solar-powered car for healthcare in places like Kenya is its adaptability.
‘It’s really designed to reach large distances. It’s powered by the sun, so even when it reaches a destination, it doesn’t have to go back to a central point,’ she said. ‘It can go on and on and on.’
Isabella Wanningen, 22, a computer science student who worked on the car’s energy functions, explained the name’s meaning.
‘Stella is our family name. Our first car was called Stella and we’ve taken it to each car,’ she told AFP. ‘And of course, we want to make a societal impact and Juva in Latin means ‘to help’. So we really wanted to express that in the name as well.’