A potential response to the COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with long-term benefits is to provide electricity for medical equipment in rural health centers and communities. This study identifies a large gap in the electrification of healthcare facilities in SSA, and it shows that decentralized photovoltaic systems can offer a clean, reliable, quick, and cost-effective solution. The cost of providing renewable electricity to each health facility by a stand-alone PV system is analyzed for a given location (incorporating operational costs). The upfront investment cost for providing electricity with PV to >50,000 facilities (mostly primary health posts) currently without electricity is estimated at EUR 484 million. Analysis of the accessibility and population distribution shows that 281 million people could reduce their travel time to healthcare facilities (by an average of 50 min) if all facilities were electrified.

Aerogels are nanostructured highly porous solids that present properties which are very different from other materials, i.e., extremely low densities. In this letter, the mechanical properties of aerogels have been studied with a nondestructive microindentation technique. This technique enables the continuous measurement of load-displacement curves during loading and unloading cycles by using very small indentation loads (∼1 mN), small enough to prevent cracking of the aerogels. The samples studied show two different types of mechanical behaviors; the low-density aerogels are elastic, while the denser aerogels behave as elastoplastic materials. Young’s modulus, hardness, and the elastic parameter have been evaluated for these aerogel samples. Power function relationships have been found between these mechanical parameters and the aerogel densities.