Planning for Electrification: On- and Off-Grid Considerations in Sub-Saharan Africa

Rawn, Barry; Louie, Henry

doi:10.19088/1968-2017.161

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Further, the power outage frequency ranges between daily and once in four days [9]. These occurrences have negatively impacted economic productivity while increasing costs of doing business in the region [2,3,10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photovoltaic Solar Technologies: Solution to Affordable, Sustainable, and Reliable Energy Access for All in Rwanda

Bimenyimana

Asemota

Niyonteze

et al. 2019

International Journal of Photoenergy

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Despite remarkable economic growth and development in recent decades, Rwanda has been still facing energy crises and challenges. Although the country has considerable energy assets, less than 10% is utilized for its local electricity needs. Currently, national installed generation capacity is estimated at 221 MW, for a population around 12 million, and electricity access is estimated at 51% (37% grid and 14% off-grid networks). About half the population is without electricity access while the grid-connected users face high electricity tariffs and frequent power outages (blackouts). The national grid itself is also experiencing high losses. This paper used the HOMER software for modeling the optimal, sustainable, reliable, and affordable photovoltaic solar technologies as energy solutions for all (off-grid and on-grid users) in Rwanda. The selection and recommendation of a suitable photovoltaic (PV) solar technology depend on its annual electricity production capacity, electrical load, renewable energy penetration percentage, economic viability, feasibility, affordability, carbon footprint, and greenhouse gas emission level for climate change considerations towards a clean and greener future. The results show that the least cost of energy (LCOE) for electricity production by each of the solar PV systems with storage, PV-grid-connected household, and PV-grid connection with storage was 67.5%, 56.8%, and 33.9%, respectively, lower than the normal electricity tariff in Rwanda. The PV systems with storage proposed in this paper could be effective in increasing national energy resource exploitation, providing affordable and reliable energy access to all citizens.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photovoltaic Solar Technologies: Solution to Affordable, Sustainable, and Reliable Energy Access for All in Rwanda

Bimenyimana

Asemota

Niyonteze

et al. 2019

International Journal of Photoenergy

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“…In such cases, mini-grids or individual systems fill the gap in rural electricity provision. 119 Centralized grid extensions are costly, slower to construct, capital intensive, and face high operational costs. Poor rural populations are rarely able to afford the high rates required to recover the costs of construction, further encumbering electricity companies and governments who have to heavily subsidize service provision.…”

Section: Infrastructure and New Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…120 The impact of centralized grid extension (rural electrification) schemes on agriculture across other parts of SSA is limited, at best. 121,122 In Rwanda in 2013, about 3.5 years after electrification, electricity consumption and uptake of appliances remained low. Although electricity consumption for mobile phone charging and entertainment (radio, TV, computers) increased, there was little change in productive use, such as machinery for agriculture.…”

Section: Infrastructure and New Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Energized: Policy innovation to power the transformation of Africa’s agriculture and food system

Panel¹

2019

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Box 2: Smart bioenergy production While agriculture is a primary consumer of energy in Africa, it is also an important source of energy production. Crops such as sugarcane, maize, sorghum, and jatropha can be locally grown and used to generate bioenergy where appropriate technology is available, thereby reducing reliance on fossil fuels. And although the production of heat from bioenergy can be cost-competitive with fossil fuel alternatives, lower fossil fuel prices have substantially reduced its attractiveness. Similarly, the cost-effi ciency of power generation from biomass depends critically on the scale of an operation or farm as well as on the availability and quality of feedstock. However, in most cases the electrical effi ciency of the steam cycle tends to be lower than that for conventional fossil fuel plants. 23 Processing biomass for bioenergy can also provide a new source of income to smallholders. For example, in Ghana, a local women's group extracts oil from jatropha seeds and mixes it with diesel (70 percent plant oil with 30 percent diesel) both to fuel shea butter processing equipment and to replace kerosene used in lanterns. 24 More sustainable and effi cient use of bioenergy can also unlock the potential of the agriculture sector by attracting new and additional investments to raise agricultural productivity. Africa's bioenergy capacity has increased steadily, reaching 1.2 GW in 2016 and accounting for 3.1 percent of renewable capacity in Africa. 25 Across Africa, bagasse, the dry, pulpy, fi brous residue that remains after crushing sugarcane or sorghum stalks, provides up to 91 percent of the bioelectricity, particularly in Sudan, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the production of biogas-electricity is also on the rise and several biogas programs are emerging across Africa, including in Mauritius,

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“…In addition, utility grid networks in most sub-Saharan countries are struggling to meet the power demands of their rapidly expanding cities let alone to increase their reach of electricity provision to rural communities. Most governments have ambitious plans for grid extension but past experience shows that delivery does not usually match the stated targets [5]. Therefore, small, decentralized clean energy technologies in developing countries can be a better option for a rapid and more economic approach to deliver on the electricity access challenge in remote communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrical Minigrids for Development: Lessons From the Field

Bahaj

James

2019

Proc. IEEE

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| Energy services are crucial to human wellbeing and development, and without reliable energy, it is difficult to escape subsistence lifestyles and poverty. Here, we report on four identical capacity rural minigrid interventions undertaken in Kenya and Uganda with differing socioeconomic characteristics and demographics. The research outcomes presented briefly discuss the preparation stages of the interventions including community surveys that informed the technical design, deployment phases, and setup of the community cooperatives to manage the minigrid projects. The main focus here is on lessons learned, including system design and minigrid performance under various load profiles. The results show a clear and increasing uptake of power by the communities with intensities varying depending on the electricity tariff used.Across the four minigrids, daily electricity growth rates are seen to vary by a factor of 8. The Ugandan minigrids operated at close to utility grid tariff and reached the 28-kWh/day design limit within two years. By contrast, the Kenyan minigrids charged a higher cost recovery tariff, which capped the demand and systems operate below the design limit. These findings have implications not only to system design but also to system stability and longevity. The approach taken here, of community centered cooperatives running the delivered minigrids, is now embedded within the rural electrification authorities/agencies in both countries, with additional similar projects being planned in ramifications, and replication of such a minigrid concept as compared to other approaches are also discussed in this paper. KEYWORDS | Community power; cooperatives energy services; electricity for remote villages; energy access; energy and development; minigrids; photovoltaics (PV) power systems; renewable energy. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see

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Planning for Electrification: On- and Off-Grid Considerations in Sub-Saharan Africa

Cited by 9 publications

References 11 publications

Photovoltaic Solar Technologies: Solution to Affordable, Sustainable, and Reliable Energy Access for All in Rwanda

Photovoltaic Solar Technologies: Solution to Affordable, Sustainable, and Reliable Energy Access for All in Rwanda

Energized: Policy innovation to power the transformation of Africa’s agriculture and food system

Electrical Minigrids for Development: Lessons From the Field

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