Abstract
The cost of solar PV has been reduced to a level such that the levelized cost of solar electricity is either cheaper or competitive relative to the grid electricity. So, a low-cost integration of solar PV with grid can be a cost-effective solution for clean cooking. The usual technique of using grid-tied inverters contribute ~20% towards the energy cost. The proposed system incorporates a control circuit that connects grid electricity to the solar PV via a DC link and provides a DC output eliminating the requirement of grid-tied inverters. Most of the cooking utensils either have a resistive heating element or an electronic control circuit that is insensitive to input AC or DC and no modification is needed for the cooking utensils while using with DC voltage. In the proposed system, preference for power delivery is always given to the solar PV and the grid effectively operates as the backup for the system when solar PV output fluctuates due to varying weather and climatic conditions. As the absence of a grid-tied inverter in the system restricts the excess solar energy to be transferred to the grid, some kind of energy storage device is essential to run the system efficiently. A novel idea of storing solar PV energy in the form of hot water has been presented in this paper, with a cost-effective clean cooking concept. A simple and low-cost heat preservation technique has been suggested that requires a minimal change in habit for the users. Experimental results with multiple cooking utensils and foods have been presented and energy cost for cooking has been found to be as low as 4.75 USD/month, which is significantly lower (32%) than that of the grid-connected regular cooking system.
Highlights
Despite the positive trend in the economic growth of the less developed Asian and African countries, more than half of the world population still uses biomass [1,2,3,4] and are subject to health hazards from the toxic fumes and suspended particles from the stoves [5,6,7,8,9,10]
This paper presents a number of issues relevant to an efficient clean cooking method
PV modules in the world market has come to a level such that the cost of solar electricity is cheaper than that of the grid electricity in most of the countries
Summary
Despite the positive trend in the economic growth of the less developed Asian and African countries, more than half of the world population still uses biomass [1,2,3,4] and are subject to health hazards from the toxic fumes and suspended particles from the stoves [5,6,7,8,9,10]. Under-privileged people in the developing countries predominantly use charcoal or biomass due to their relative low cost, neglecting the underlying health-related costs due to toxic emission Gas cookers, they may not have the same high efficiency as an electric cooker, are more efficient compared to the conventional stoves but still pose health threats [14,15,16] and are relatively expensive. If roof top PVs can be used via some innovative circuitry avoiding grid-tied inverters with the grid as the backup instead of a battery, it is possible to locally generate low-cost electricity that can supplement the grid This will reduce the overall electricity cost (eliminating the inverter can reduce the PV electricity cost by around 20%) and at the same time reduce the challenge of transmission lines being overloaded
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