African sustainable energy microgrid development with solar PV and energy storage

Abstract

The lack of electricity access presents a considerable barrier to the development of society. That issue is more notable in Africa, precisely in Sub-Saharan Africa where more than fifty percent of the population does not have access to electricity. Multiple studies have shown that much of the African population that lacks electricity access lives in remote areas where there is no grid coverage. The extension of the existing grids to those areas has been deemed a less viable option due to the complexity and high costs associated with that exercise. The identified solution to that problem is the development of a local electrical network, a microgrid, using locally available renewable energy resources such as solar energy to provide electricity access to the surrounding population. The integration of solar PV microgrids is particularly suited for a Sub-Saharan African country such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to their high potential for solar energy and the low cost associated with the technology. Solar PV microgrids also reduce the dependency on fossil fuels and the use of fossil fuel-based power plants which have been proven as major contributors to the detriment of the environment. This research project developed a microgrid using solar PV to electrify remote communities in the DRC. Given that solar energy is intermittent and is not available during night-time when the electricity demand is usually at its peak, the microgrid was configured with a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to ensure an uninterrupted power supply. Also given that the BESS is a high-cost component, the microgrid considered the introduction of a biogas generator, that reduces the BESS architecture which subsequently reduces the cost of the implementation and operation of the system. The microgrid configuration was modelled and simulated using HOMER Pro to determine its techno-economic viability for the electrification of the community compared to the extension of the existing networks. The simulation results showed that the developed microgrid model using a solar PV, BESS, and biogas generator presented a cost-effective electrical network to electrify remote communities in the DRC compared to the grid extension.