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Feedback of Field experience
in Rural Electrification
MARK VERVAART
GROUP LEADER PV OFF-GRID SYSTEMS AND
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
21 JUILLET 2015
[email protected]
CEA | 10 AVRIL 2012 | PAGE 1
A bit of history…
1980:CEA starts a large
Rural Electrification project in
Polynésie (2500 homes)
1839:
Nineteen-year-old
Edmund Becquerel,
discovered the
photovoltaic effect
while experimenting
with an electrolytic
cell made up of two
metal electrodes
1839
Enormouth growth
in Solar Home
Systems for
developing countries
Worldbank PVGAP,
Grameen Shakti, Shell Solar, CENELEC
and IEC quality standards
‘Lessons learned’ / silence
around SHS financing
1960
1961:
The UN conference
on Solar Energy in
the Developing
World was held
1963: Japan
installs first 240Wp
system, biggest at
that time
1970
1980
1990
Technological
revolution
2000
2010
2015
Microprocessor based BMS,
integrated intelligence, energy
balance, fuzzy logic algorithms
Mini-grids getting
popular as new
sollution
Rural electrification
The only detailed book on the history of
rural electrification with solar energy and
different financial schemes
« Chasing the Sun », Neville Williams
Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF)
Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO)
12€ at Amazon
(Only in English)
Rural electrification
 All cultures are different. What works in one country will




not necessarily work in another country.
Geographical conditions
(jungle, sand, salt, animals …)
Climatological situation (Sun, monsoon,
temperature,…)
Corruption (customs, head of village,…)
Theft of modules!!
Humanitarian ≠ giving two PV-modules for free
Giving two PV-modules for free = killing the market
Owner of the system
Two philosophies exist (besides giving it for free…):
 Selling the systems
 Sell the systems directly or via micro-credits
 Systems <20Wp are financially viable already
 Need cheap systems
 Minimizing the investment costs
 Low cost components (bad quality?)
 Explosion of maintenance costs
 Rent the systems
 An energy service provider invests in the systems
 The systems are rented to the user with a guaranty of service
 Minimizing system operating costs
 High quality components
 The high investment costs are compensated by lower
maintenance costs. (Aftersales service is very costly)
Transfering modern technology
A modern technology for Africa?
Why did solar energy never ‘took off’ as the mobile phone
industry does in 3 years only, while solar energy
exists on the continent since 40 years?
Transfering modern technology
180 km,
Who’s gonna win?
Transfering modern technology
5 hours later….
Transfering modern technology
One of the reasons that
The system fits the needs of people
(Think about the holes in the road)
People can understand the system
wins:
Transfering modern technology
Mobile phones:
Western countries export all their obsolete mobile phones
(and cars!) to Africa, so they have spare parts for all
brands and models.
Transfering modern technology
Education and knowledge transfer are crucial
Local responsibility for the system:
Small repairs must be done by local people
For more complex problems, a maintenance team
must be available.
Long term maintenance assurance (fairly difficult!!)
Understanding energy management
“How to share the available energy??”
“How to use the batteries in the right way?”
“How many housholds can be equiped?”
Life in the wild…
Performance degradation of PV modules
Due to
Temperature fluctuation
UV
Dust and sand
And in our labs, we fight for 1% more cell efficiency….
Hole
Life in the wild…
Micro-hydro in Cameroun:
Snakes are the main reason for defective hydro power plants
Local technicians must be able to repair the systems on site…
Source: Ingénieurs Sans Frontières
Practical problems
Theft
15 years ago, the locals didn’t know what that
blue thing up there was….
Now times changed!!
Programme Régional Solaire Phase 2 (PRSII
in Africa, 2002-2007, 5.8M€)
EU program:
60% of module theft!!
India, 1996
Battery recycling
India and China buy big quantities of lead
With rising lead prices, many clandestin recycle site have appeared
Not allowed to export used batteries internationally
Clandestine site
Official sites
Battery recycling
 In solar energy we talk about battery recycling for having a
sustainable project, but not all countries have that
possibility!!!
The smallest factories must treat around 5 à 6000t/year
minimum for a viable business model
A battery has around 15kg of lead and a lifetime of 3 years. So
in this example we need a market size of 1 million cars to
justify the factory.
Conclusions
Read and learn from the experiences in history
Distill the REAL needs and make a long term
planning
(This makes the project scope much wider!)
Coordinating individual opportunist actions
stimulates the creation of a local sustainable
Solar business and make Rural Electrification a
viable concept…
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION…
Either the battery has been
stolen or the solar panel has
gone missing
Apathy: Wild growth covering the solar street
light on the Uthiramerur-Kancheepuram Road
at Kalakattur has rendered the facility
useless.— Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam