Half of Off-Grid Solar Freezers in Vanuatu Sit Dead; UNSW Builds Repair Chain

Around half of the solar-powered freezers examined by UNSW Sydney researchers in Vanuatu no longer work. The figure comes from fieldwork by Scientia Associate Professor Paul Munro, whose team documents an off-grid solar fleet across the Pacific that expanded from almost nothing to near-ubiquity in 15 years — and that now fails in predictable ways within two to three years of installation.

The economics are stark. On Vanuatu's outer islands, a solar freezer lets a household store fish and produce rather than sell immediately, which changes when and how the family earns. When a component fails, that income engine stops.

"A household buys a solar freezer and it's game changing," Munro said. "But as soon as it breaks, it's really devastating because all of a sudden you can no longer stock your produce."

What is actually breaking?

The answer, mostly, is not the panel. Munro reports that panels tend to hold up while batteries fail most commonly — a pattern the team sees in both Africa and the Pacific. Damaged wiring, storms, poor installation and cheaper components account for the rest.

"The big thing is, most of them are repairable because it's a component that breaks. It's just a battery cell needs replacing," he said.

The systems themselves arrive fragmented. One documented household ran 13 roof panels, each wired to a separate system — a panel for one light, a panel for a stereo, a panel for phone charging. Many small products pair a panel, a battery and a few lights, and carry warranties of roughly two years. The panel outlives the warranty-bearing components around it.

On a remote island, a battery swap requires skills, tools and parts that may have to come from overseas. That is the gap the repair program targets.

How does the Fixim Sola program work?

The Fixim Sola project, run with Vanuatu's Department of Energy, the Vanuatu Institute of Technology and local communities, builds repair hubs that link expertise, parts and tools to households. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade funds the work; UNSW gender and development researcher Dr Joyce Wu also contributes.

"We're creating the conditions for solar repair to thrive in Vanuatu. This links expertise, parts, and tools with local repair hubs. This way, systems stay in use and communities stay connected," said Dr Shanil Samarakoon, Munro's UNSW colleague.

The training pipeline runs as follows:

• Solar importers train institute educators on their latest products.
• Those trainers deliver intensive vocational courses, with participants recruited through local councils.
• Graduates return to their islands with toolkits and access to spare parts through the repair hubs.

Results to date: 141 people trained across eight islands, repair businesses and community hubs established, and improved repair access for more than 93,000 people. Graduates have completed an estimated 200 repairs. A US$200,000 Macquarie Community Resilience Prize will fund two further years of work in Vanuatu, with Timor-Leste and other Pacific sites under exploration.

The team also piloted week-long courses at two senior secondary schools, teaching basic maintenance and safe repairs on small solar products. The intended pathway runs from school-level basics to vocational courses and advanced technical qualifications. "They absolutely loved it," Munro said of the students. With senior secondary schools on only nine islands, boarding students can carry the skills home across the archipelago.

Can repair fix the design problem?

Local skills have a ceiling. Products can be hard to open and inspect, and replacement parts may simply not exist when needed. So the UNSW group is working upstream as well.

Through Australian Research Council-supported work in Malawi and Zambia, Munro and Samarakoon study repair practices in African off-grid markets. The Solar Repair Lab — established with the Global Off-Grid Solar Association, CLASP, SolarAid and the Energy Saving Trust — connects that research to industry. Its 2026 State of Repair report, recently launched, draws on surveys and interviews with manufacturers, distributors and users across the off-grid solar sector.

The pressure campaign is showing results. One major manufacturer and distributor in the sector has extended its warranty from two years to five. A research partner is developing a repairability index that would let investors score products and make repairability a funding condition.

"We work with investors in the sector to get them to demand more repairability," Munro said. "No single organization can solve solar waste."

The near-term metric to watch is warranty terms: whether the two-to-five-year extension by one distributor becomes sector practice, or stays an outlier.