When you live in a place that is on the electrical grid, where healthcare is readily available, and there are ambulances to transport you to hospitals, you can expect to be able to receive state-of-the-art medical treatment. But that is not always the case in many parts of the world.
In fact, a third of Africans live two hours or more from healthcare services and many have little or no access to electricity, reported Euronews. Now, there is a solution that could transform healthcare in remote areas. Students from the Solar Team Eindhoven at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands developed a new solar-powered ambulance called Stella Juva to help close the gap.

The Test Drive
During the ambulances first practical test in the summer of 2026, that was held in collaboration with the health organization Amref Health Africa, Sella Juva covered more than 800 km in rural communities in the Narok region of Kenya.
“In Narok, long distances and unreliable electricity still make quality healthcare difficult to access,” Geoffrey Sadera, a project lead of maternal and child health at Amref Health Africa told Euronews. “Stella Juva can bring not only health workers to remote communities, but also the power and medical equipment needed to examine and diagnose people on the spot.”
The Stella Juva is not a typical ambulance that picks patients up and delivers them to health care centers, the ambulance brings healthcare directly to the people that need it, according to a press release from the Solar Team.
The medical equipment includes ultrasound, an X-ray machine, an automatic external defibrillator, and a cooling system for vaccines. This allows healthcare providers to perform blood tests and screen people for diseases like malaria. No real patients were treated during the test drive.
About Stella Juva
The Stella Juva operates as an EV that is powered by solar panels. The energy generated from the panels is stored in a 50kWh battery that allows the ambulance to keep driving and operating after the sun goes down.
The ambulance is road legal, can travel 710km on a sunny day and has a top speed of 145 kph. The solar panels are 97 percent efficient.

The students who developed the sustainable ambulance were inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals which include healthcare.
“We want to inspire healthcare providers, companies, and other organizations to create social impact through technology. If 23 students can achieve this in a single year, it shows what’s possible when the technological industry and social organizations work together,” said Yarno Basten, partnerships manager of Solar Team Eindhoven in the press release.
What’s Next?
So, what’s next? Since the trial ended, reported CNN, Stella Juva is being returned to the Netherlands, but the students hope that this is not the end.
“We hope to inspire industry and society to use innovative technologies like Stella Juva to tackle some societal problems,” Yarno Basten, a 23-year-old team member told CNN.
There are impediments to getting this successful solar ambulance into practice that include a lack of funding. While Kenya has made strides in renewable energy, it hasn’t been used in the healthcare field except for vaccine storage.
Kennedy Wakoli, a family and reproductive health expert at Amref Health Africa said that he hopes Stella Juva can be an example that shows that harnessing power from the sun is critical to improving healthcare in rural areas because, “solar energy is everywhere.”
Bonnie has dedicated her life to promoting social justice. She loves to write about empowering women, helping children, educational innovations, and advocating for the environment & sustainability.

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