Dutch students unveil prototype solar-powered ambulance

A Dutch student team has unveiled a prototype solar-powered ambulance that it says could help provide medical care in remote areas. The two-seat vehicle, called Stella Juva, has solar panels on its roof that power both the engine and medical equipment, including x-ray machines and defibrillators.

The team believes the vehicle is the world's first solar-powered ambulance. It can reach 120 kilometres per hour, or 75 miles per hour, and is designed for off-road terrain that is difficult to access. The students say it can travel 715 kilometres on a sunny day. Its solar-charged battery is intended to keep the vehicle and equipment working at night or in cloudy weather.

Project leader Mathijs van Gerven, a 21-year-old biomedical engineering student at Eindhoven University of Technology, said Stella Juva was built to deliver healthcare in hard-to-reach areas. The vehicle is intended to bring care to patients rather than carry patients to hospitals. It includes tuberculosis testing kits, cooled storage for vaccines and ultrasound equipment for pregnant women.

The student team plans to take the prototype to Kenya next month for testing. Femke Maurits, partnerships manager at Amref Health Africa, said many African countries face long distances between remote villages and healthcare facilities, limited public transport, high fuel costs and unreliable electricity networks. She said a vehicle such as Stella Juva could help address healthcare delivery challenges.

Many members of the 23-student team paused their studies to work on the project, which took one year to complete. During the unveiling at a test centre in Barneveld in the central Netherlands, the vehicle was shown with a dashboard displaying speed and battery power, with medical equipment stored in the rear.

Van Gerven said the team still needs to test the vehicle's durability for off-road use in remote parts of Kenya. The prototype carries spare tyres and shovels in case it becomes stuck. He said the project would need to be scaled up to have a wider effect and invited technical companies and industry partners to work with the team.

Isabella Wanningen, a 22-year-old computer science student who worked on the car's energy functions, said the name Stella continues the team's naming tradition for its vehicles, while Juva comes from Latin and means to help.