The Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department of the World Health Organization has, over the past 25 years, been actively involved in the development, laboratory and field testing and prequalification of equipment and devices used in immunization programs worldwide.

This effort includes, among others, vaccine refrigeration equipment designed for use in the rural areas of developing countries. A number of solar powered vaccine refrigerators are already listed in the WHO/UNICEF Products information sheets and have been very successfully used in the field.

However, experience with solar powered refrigerators over the past 15 years has shown that, while the technology works very efficiently, there remain a few critical obstacles to a much broader use of this technology. These include:

• The initial high capital investment required.
• The relatively lengthy installation procedure (unlike other refrigerators solar fridges require at least one technician to install the solar panels, run the cabels and connect the batteries).
• The significant recurrent costs due to the need to replace the batteries after 3 to 5 years.

SolarChill is designed to operate without batteries. This addresses one of the major recurrent cost factors. The price target has been set around US$1,500 - $2,000 which is much lower that the US$ 3000 to 4,000 of other solar systems. These features make SolarChill an attractive technology which many immunization programs worldwide would be interested in using as replacement for kerosene, gas or solar units current in use in remote areas.

Several unsuccessful attempts have already been made, with the support of the World Health Organization, at the development of battery free solar vaccine refrigerators. The results obtained so far with SolarChill are promising.

For the above reasons, the World Health Organization is very supportive of the joint effort to develop this technology. Eventually the SolarChill technology will be tested to WHO standard performance specifications and accordingly listed in the product information sheets.

For further information regarding the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department of the World Health Organization please see: www.who.int/vaccines

Contact: Michel Zaffran
Coordinator, Access to Technologies
Department Of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals
1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland
Phone: + 41 22 791 43 73
Email: zaffranm@who.int