Independent renewable energy microgrid design for Africa

Abstract

Around 761 million people in Africa have no access to modern energy, affecting people living in rural areas the most. Rural communities are areas where the extension of the national electricity grid is a technically difficult, costly, and inefficient solution because of remoteness and sparse population density. Kenya ranks number 8 on the list of Africa’s largest economies, with more than 60% of its population living in rural areas. Nearly 43 million people do not have clean cooking energy, and approximately 55% of Kenya’s population has no access to electricity. With the lack of electricity access, the people who find themselves in remote areas have no choice but to use traditional methods of cooking, such as biomass. Electricity availability is crucial for both economic and human development. Renewable Microgrids can be designed to cater for the needs of such communities using available renewable resources in the villages. In this study, the renewable energy microgrid was designed using HOMER Pro. Geographic information was collected to assess the available natural resources a village has that will be used in the design, and the population information collected assisted in knowing the electricity demand. The loading of the studied villages was taken from the findings of previous studies of villages in Kenya. A simulation was done, and the suitable system configurations that could supply the demand of each of the villages were selected. This study designed a renewable microgrid which provided economic energy to Mumbiri, South Korr, Kitulu, Mkwiro, and Sasimwani villages in Kenya. The study showed that a PV solar system, when combined with an energy storage, converter and an MPPT, could supply sufficient electricity for Mumbiri and Kitulu Village. As for South Korr and Mkwiro Village, the study concluded that because of the area’s vast wind potential, the combination of the system included a wind turbine, batteries, and a converter. Sasimwani Village has large forests, and the study revealed that that resource could be used to fuel the generator. The findings suggested that available renewable energy resources in the selected locations could provide electricity without any capacity shortages. Therefore, the implementation of renewable energy microgrids could assist in achieving rural electrification.