Abstract
Energy access is critical for health, education and social welfare improvements. In countries like Ethiopia, with a low electrification rate and with the majority of the population located in rural areas, about 76% of primary schools do not have access to electricity. This limits the hours of classes and does not allow the use of basic or modern teaching resources. Off-grid solutions have emerged as potential cost-effective alternatives to electrify rural areas and schools, but the availability of off-grid appliances and the size of the system can lead to different solutions. Therefore, this study proposes a DC microgrid system to supply the electricity demand of a rural school located in Ethiopia, considering load estimation scenarios with standard and high-efficiency appliances. The simulation results show that the designed DC microgrid is a valid option to electrify the rural school under each load and generation scenarios. The system costs were also evaluated, and the high-efficiency appliances option has a 51% lower cost. The study also applies to other sub-Saharan countries in the region with very low energy access rates and abundant solar energy, thus giving a large contribution to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Education Goal 4 (SDG 4).
Highlights
The main purpose of this research work is to design, model and simulate the DC-microgrid that serves Gomenege Primary School. Such a model can be used for other primary schools located in rural areas of Ethiopia and other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which do not have access to electricity
The solar energy potential of the location and the clearness index is presented in Figure 6, being such data generated from the nearby location of the school site from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
The main objective of this paper was to design and model a DC-microgrid system composed of a solar PV system, system controller and battery storage system for a primary school in the rural sub-Saharan region, using Ethiopia as a case study
Summary
The access to energy services in the developing world presents a low rate [2], which is aggravated by high transmission and distribution costs, weak infrastructure, poor operating and maintenance performance [3], high greenhouse gas emissions and its associated environmental and health impacts, as well as lack of capital [4]. The impact of these problems on the balance between energy supply and demand in developing countries is huge, leading to poor living standards and a lack of human development [5]. To improve the education system based on the global standard of primary schools, a DC microgrid system is proposed
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