Prospects and Challenges of Utilizing Solar Energy for the COVID-19 Vaccine Cold Storage in Remote Clinics of Tropical Countries: Review

Abstract

The rapid spread of COVID-19 pandemic has forced several countries in the world to store vaccines in cold storage towards ensuring their protection from being damaged and to maintain their stability. However, most remote clinics, especially those in the equator and islands, are faced with the challenges of hot climates and the inability to afford electricity resources needed to power the cold storage facility. Meanwhile, the hot equatorial region has abundant solar energy to power the vaccine cold storage but previous studies showed that several field workers do not have the ability to maintain the vaccine storage temperature as indicated by the manufacturer’s recommendations. Therefore, this literature review study examines the prospects and challenges of implementing solar-powered cold storage to provide cooling space for remote clinics. This is expected to contribute significantly to cold chain vaccine management technology. The findings showed that four technology integration schemes including Cold Storage Ice Maker, Cold Storage Ice Maker-PCM, Refrigerator-Ice Maker and, Absorbing Cooling-PV-Ice Maker have the potential to be applied in clinics situated in certain tropical regions.