Sustainable and inclusive energy solutions in refugee camps: Developing a modelling approach for energy demand and alternative renewable power supply

Abstract

In long-term emergency operations such as refugee camps, humanitarian aid faces logistical and budgetary limitations. Thus far, the energy systems that supply these operations are designed with little insight on demand needs, leading to the deployment of standardized fossil-dependent solutions which, albeit presenting low investment costs, are pollutant and often inefficient.This work applies a multi-disciplinary methodology to develop an energy demand modelling framework for Tier 0 refugee camps, and assesses the implementation of alternative power supply systems. It does so by not only focusing on its techno-economic feasibility, but equally through investigating the challenges on adoption in the specific context of refugee camps, by undertaking interviews with relevant stakeholders in the humanitarian sector. The modelling application has been performed for the Mantapala refugee camp, in Zambia, enabling the comparison of different combinations of power supply systems against current diesel-based solutions, using HOMER software.Results show that the implementation of hybrid renewable energy systems is viable, both technically and economically, with energy costs being reduced up to 50%, with paybacks lower than five years. However, from the interviews performed, some non-technical constraints that may hinder the adoption of these systems in refugee camps were identified, such as uncertainty, lack of funding and difficulties on risk-sharing collaborations. As such, a discussion focused on possible strategies that may help overcome these barriers is presented.