How Solar Microgrids are Saving Lives in War-Torn Ukraine, Where “the Needs are Endless"
A few days ago, a team drove 1,000 kilometers on snowy roads to deliver solar microgrids to a trauma center in Mykolaiv and to Dmytro Fedorenko, who is known as “Dr. Solar,” and is head of the intensive care unit at the hospital, where he will use the microgrids in high-need surgical units in the five-story building.
Microgrids’ ability to supply power is important in Ukraine, where Russian attacks have destroyed much of the grid. In some areas, Ukrainians have deployed diesel generators, but they can’t always supply uninterruptible power.
“At the trauma center, the doctor had a big diesel generator which doesn’t turn on after a power outage for 15 t0 30 minutes,” said Paul Shmotolokha, a Ukrainian-American and CEO of New Use Energy, which provided the solar microgrids. “He needs long-duration uninterrupted power supply.”
Sometimes the generator doesn’t turn on at all, Shmotolokha said. That’s in part because the best electricians left the front lines for safer places, and the generators haven’t been maintained. Those providing critical services can also run out of diesel fuel for generators.
Solar microgrids and batteries support a range of critical services
Hospitals are just some of the facilities in Ukraine that need microgrids when power is unavailable. Front-line makeshift medical centers, schools, blood storage facility operators, community centers, police stations and military personnel who jam Russian drone communication systems are all requesting microgrids and batteries to provide electricity.
“The needs are endless,” Shmotolokha said.
Meeting some of those needs has saved lives.
In March 2024, on the eastern Donetsk front, seven medical professionals had set up a patient stabilization center, using a 2.5-kWh battery to provide electricity to cool blood supplies.
When the makeshift center was struck by three aerial bombs fired by Russia, the medical personnel dragged the battery outside into the rubble and hooked it up to Starlink to summon associates to help them evacuate.
Many months later, one of the doctors who had been working at the patient stabilization center texted Leda Lada, an international business development consultant to New Use Energy. “He said, ‘I’m forever grateful because your equipment saved our lives,’” said Lada.
Medical professionals hold flashlights in their teeth
New Use Energy also worked with the Canada-Ukraine Foundation in frontline areas to equip ambulance operators with portable power to run Starlink and radios, and to take them into buildings without power to treat patients.
“Now they don’t have to hold flashlights in their teeth while working on those who need care,” said Shmotolokha in a Linkedin post.
Microgrids are also helping “clean up” power that surges at levels of up to 300 volts when power is restored after an outage, Lada said. The surges can harm sensitive laboratory equipment and ventilators. The microgrids lower the voltage to appropriate levels, Shmotolokha said.
When lab equipment is stopped by a power outage, medical personnel can lose fluid specimens from patients and sometimes have to go back and ask for the specimens again.
“If you’re at a children’s hospital, you don’t want to have to ask children again for samples,” Lada said.
Helping block communications between drones and operators
Yet another important role for microgrids in Ukraine is powering “jammers” that block communication between a drone and its operator, preventing drones from targeting ambulances and other medical equipment. (See photo at top).
In addition, schools on the front line need power during outages to keep the lights on and run computers and laboratories while children work either remotely or at a physical school, Lada said.
To date, donors located in areas ranging from Berlin to San Francisco have provided $2 million for New Use Energy projects in Ukraine. Donors include Power Up Ukraine, Footprint Project, Ukrainian Engineers Society of America, Ukrainian American Veterans Association Post 42, Canada Ukraine Foundation, Ukraine Crisis Aid and Smart Aid International.
Many of those organizations supported New Use Energy’s efforts when the war first began. Just hours after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Will Heegaard, operations manager for Footprint Project–a nonprofit that provides solar microgrids and other emergency power systems to disaster areas–called Shmotolokha and said, “We have to do something.”
Microgrids as life savers
Since then, New Use Energy, Footprint Project and others have helped support many critical services in Ukraine with solar microgrids and batteries, in some cases saving lives.
“We are saving lives by powering operating rooms for life-saving surgeries, intensive care unit equipment to keep patients breathing and blood refrigeration to reach the wounded in time,” Lada said. “We fuel vital communications for first responders under fire and defenders holding the line.”
Donations can be made to Ukraine Crisis Aid Group here.
