We thought this post from ReneSola, which concerns the importance of solar in the future of energy in the developing world, was interesting. We have reposted it here with permission. You can see the full post and other posts from ReneSola on their blog.
About 1.9 billion people worldwide are unable to use electricity since they are not connected to the utility grid. Since 2009, about 35% of households in Africa have no access to electricity. In the rural areas where there are grids, about one out of three users often experience power outages. With the high cost, time, and money in developing power plants or electrical stations, renewable energy storage products and systems are the more feasible solution for bringing power to people living in rural communities.
This article gives an overview of the lifestyle in rural Africa and discusses three different types of off-grid products that are best options to provide electricity in rural communities without causing pollutants and at low costs.
How Solar Can Affect Africa’s Lifestyle
Illumination: In Africa, every year the amount of money spent on kerosene lighting is about $4.4 billion. Using kerosene lamps has many risks. The low brightness can damage eyesight, especially in children who use the light to study. The vapors from the lamp affects the lungs and respiratory tract and can easily cause fire hazards. Early battery powered lamps generally used lead-acid or nickel-cadmium batteries, which had short lifespan, large body, contaminants and high life-cycle costs.
Mobile phones: With the development of global mobile communications, mobile phones in Africa have a higher penetration. Voicemails, SMS texts, and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) mobile phones are widely used in Africa. However, mobile-phone charging is inconvenient in this country. Areas with no electricity are usually in rural environments where transportation is not easily accessible, and the utility grid in the nearest town is more that 20km away. To charge once requires at least one day. For residents who live in areas with no utility grid, to charge a mobile phone is a big task unlike the usual person who can charge at any time and any place.
Higher levels of electricity consumption: With the rise of economic development, more people can consume electricity at higher levels. Electronic equipments such as fans, televisions, refrigerators and laptops are gradually being used by African families. Powering this equipment has become difficult. In the early years, the high prices of solar batteries and lead-acid storage batteries only allowed a small number of families to enjoy the power from off-grid system. Fuel costs, the inconvenience of acquiring gas and maintenance costs make generators inoperable most of the time.
Progress Of Off-Grid Related Technologies
Solar energy: Solar power is considered the most promising solution to the technical problems in powering off-grid areas. Solar energy is available anywhere; is clean, is not contaminated, does not need frequent care and maintenance, and — once installed — the power supply can be used for decades.
But solar power has two flaws. The initial purchase price is often high. Most residents that are not connected to the grid do not have sufficient monetary resources and have unstable power generation. Therefore, they require energy storage systems.
Technological advances and market competition have resulted in the decrease of costs in solar panels. This brings many opportunities for the off-grid market. For residents who live in areas with no electricity, solar products are gradually becoming items that can be purchased.
Battery
The development of battery technologies has also brought changes to energy storage devices. Although the old lead-acid batteries have a low initial purchase cost, they have short lifespan (300 discharge/charge cycles), require frequent maintenance, cause pollution with its lead and are unreliable because high temperatures have an impact on the lifespan of the battery.
The new generation of lithium iron phosphate batteries does not have these issues. They have long lifespan (2,000 discharge/charge cycles), require no maintenance, and are reliable (can withstand high current charging and discharging and insensitive to temperature).
Although the initial purchase cost is high (four times the amount of lead-acid battery), its entire life cycle costs is low (about half the cost of lead-acid battery). Taking into account that residents living in areas with no electricity have difficulty in enjoying timely maintenance service, so at the current stage, the long lifespan and no maintenance of lithium iron phosphate batteries are the perfect choice for off-grid energy storage systems.
LED
The development of LED technology and decrease of its costs have made LED the most suitable lighting for solar off-grid lighting products. Using LED can conserve energy of up to one third in comparison to CFL. For off-grid products, this represents a decrease of two thirds of the solar panels and energy storage capacity and is almost equivalent to half of the system cost.
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