Solar photovoltaic microgrids for energy access and emissions mitigation*

The UN’s sustainable development goal, SDG7, aims to provide universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services for all by 2030.However, around 840 million people lack access to electricity and many others lack affordable or reliable energy services, mainly in rural areas of developing countries. Renewable energy resources such as solar power have the potential to address this aim without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Solar photovoltaic microgrids are modular, scaleable, available and increasingly affordable, and as a result solar electricity has been growing faster, as a fraction of national electricity consumption, in the developing world than elsewhere.
In designing low carbon solar energy systems for energy access, we need to consider a number of issues including, the optimum size and configuration of the system, how it is likely to grow, how to balance the cost of electricity and associated emissions, and how to balance the availability but relatively high capital cost of minigrids with national aspirations for extended grid access. We have developed a model [1] which we have applied to some of these questions. We will report on studies of a variety of situations including community micro-grids, health centres and power systems for humanitarian settings [2,3]. We will also discuss the role of innovative PV technologies in energy for development [4]. Finally, we will consider the potential impact on global greenhouse gas emissions of energy access development pathways.

[1] https://github.com/phil-sandwell/CLOVER
[2] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2016.04.030
[3] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.09.416
[4] https://doi.org/10.1039/C4EE03132F