By Amrita Kondur
We are team Solar Fridge, a group of students creating a solar-powered storage fridge to hold
vaccines. Over a million people die every year from vaccine-preventable illnesses. In 2017, a
team of University of Michigan students traveled to a community in the Monte Plata province
known as Rincon Claro.
Rincon Claro is a community of less than 600 people. The clinic there is one of many
government-operated medical centers as part of the UNAP system, and it was headed at the
time by Dr. Jorge Ramirez-Ortiz. Our team met with Dr. Ramirez to talk about vaccine availability
in the area.
We learned that the community had a hard time storing vaccines. Driving up the mountain was
dangerous under certain conditions, like heavy rain, and the rocky road often led to cargo
breaking on the way up. More importantly, however, was the lack of electricity.
Like many cities, Rincon Claro experiences frequent power outages. The clinic sometimes runs
for over 10 hours with no electricity, leaving their vaccines and drugs vulnerable to degradation.
Currently, the clinic stores their vaccines at an individual’s house nearby. Dr. Ramirez said that
this was not feasible forever. The community needed a solution, and we worked with Dr.
Ramirez and members of the community to devise a plan: the Solar Fridge.
It’s a product that has a thermal and electrical component. In May 2024, four members of the
team traveled back to the community to test our second prototype. While the device was able to
store liquids at a cooler temperature than the external climate, we hoped to improve its cooling
capabilities after returning to Ann Arbor. Our current model utilizes several electrical
components: a solar panel, controller, battery, PID controller, and Peltier device in order to cool
down the vaccine vials inside the fridge.
Over the course of this year, Solar Fridge has improved the internal storage capabilities of the
device by modifying the drawers that are meant to hold the vaccines. We maneuvered towards
closed-cell polyethylene and plastic materials in order to maximize insulation and protection
from events that could tear or damage the drawers. Additionally, our electrical team used CAD
to help model the current peltier system to test different placements. By changing the
configuration of the cooling device from being on top to on the side, the team was able to help
cool down the samples to a much more desirable extent.
Solar Fridge is a project team that’s doing everything we can to help out our friends in Rincon
Claro. We operate as a part of M-HEAL, an organization at the University of Michigan that is
focused on sustainable solutions to help people all over the world. Rincon Claro and its people
are very important to us. All three components of our team — business, electrical, and
temperature control — are determined to create the best possible device for the community. We
maintain communication with the clinic and the Peace Corps to make sure our work is
community-focused, and we rely on funding (like from the Barger Leadership Institute) to be
able to innovate our design and travel.
