Zimbabwe Brings Solar Power to More Than 1,263 Health Facilities, Keeping Maternity Wards Lit

In Zimbabwe, solar power has become part of the basic equipment of the health system. More than 1,263 health facilities and medical warehouses across the country had solar energy systems by August 2026, according to a report by Jeffrey Moyo of Health Policy Watch, republished by NewZimbabwe on 10 November.

The installations come from the solar-for-health programme, launched in 2015 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Fund in collaboration with the government of Zimbabwe. The programme began when the country faced power cuts of up to 18 hours a day, as drought drained the dams and lakes that feed its hydroelectric plants. For clinics, the motive was practical rather than ideological: keeping services running.

Budiriro Polyclinic in Harare was among the first sites. Staff there say refrigerated medicines no longer risk spoiling when the national grid fails. Nurses describe how, before solar, they turned to candles or a diesel generator during outages, which were noisy, smoky and unsuited to patients. Night deliveries, once monitored by candlelight, are now carried out with steady light. One expectant mother told the reporter she gave birth to her second child at the clinic in 2018, just after the panels went in, and expects the lights to stay on again this time.

The programme has grown to the country's largest hospitals. Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Zimbabwe's biggest referral hospital, now has a 500 kW hybrid solar and battery system. A nurse there said staff no longer ask expectant mothers to buy candles and torches for outages, and a patient being treated for hypertension said she no longer faces total darkness on the ward when the power goes. At United Bulawayo Hospitals, a referral centre serving five provinces, a 350 kW plant has improved power reliability and cut the cost of diesel for generators, according to a staff member.

Medicines are protected further up the supply chain too. In 2024, UNDP handed over a 450 kWp solar system to the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the National Pharmaceutical Company, NatPharm, to keep stocks safe during blackouts. Across the network, solar now supports maternity wards, vaccine cold chains and emergency operating rooms.

The need is wider than Zimbabwe. UNDP figures cited in the report indicate that about a quarter of health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa have no electricity at all, and a further 28% have unreliable supply with frequent outages that affect the continuity and quality of care.

The Zimbabwean experience shows how energy and health planning can work as one investment. Solar systems sized for clinics, combined with storage, reduce reliance on diesel, cut running costs and remove one of the most basic risks in a hospital: the lights going out in the middle of care. The partnership model also matters. UNDP and the Global Fund supplied the systems while the Ministry of Health and national bodies such as NatPharm took them on, the kind of arrangement that can turn a pilot into a national service. As the programme matures, maintenance, battery replacement and local technical skills will decide how long those lights stay on.

Why it matters

Reliable power is a clinical requirement, not a luxury: vaccines, oxygen, theatre lights and night-time deliveries all depend on it. Zimbabwe's programme shows that solar with batteries can turn a fragile grid into a manageable risk for health services, and that the savings on diesel help pay for it.