Impact of demand flexibility and tiered resilience on solar photovoltaic adoption in humanitarian settlements

Abstract

Globally, about 80 million people are forcibly displaced. Many of them live in dark camps without electricity. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-managed camp administration commonly provides water to camp residents using polluting diesel generators. Moreover, inadequate cooking energy forces refugees to use unsustainable firewood or skip meals. Solar photovoltaic is increasingly surfacing as an alternative for water pumping. Additionally, it could support all camp-essentials. However, initial high investment impedes the solar photovoltaic proliferation in camps and hinders the United Nations’ plan to adopt clean energy in operations. Embracing power purchase agreements may shift the upfront investment to an energy service company though energy remains expensive with supply-focused agreement-crafting. Incorporating demand flexibility and tiered resilience in energy system design may lessen investment and improve utilisation. This study investigates the impact of consumer-integrated power purchase agreement-crafting to economically power camps with solar photovoltaic. Results show solar photovoltaics can power humanitarian settlements while leveraging collaborative consumption to power higher-tier requiring devices with lower-tier photovoltaic supply. Moreover, Solar photovoltaic generation can inexpensively power e-cooking, water pumping, illumination, community essentials, and critical resilience in a refugee camp with a substantial reduction in annual energy charge for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.