WHY RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION?

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A substantial proportion of the world’s poor live in rural areas which are geographically isolated and are often too sparsely populated or have a too low potential electricity demand to justify the extension of the grid. Therefore, it is necessary to provide access to electricity through other means than the extension of the grid. Renewable energies are the most adaptable, flexible and easy to use technologies for isolated rural areas. Off grid and mini grid applications offer affordable decentralised renewable energy technologies such as Solar Home Systems, wind systems, biogas digesters, biogas gasifiers, micro-hydro power plants, etc.
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As energy consumption rises with increases in population and living standards, the environmental costs of energy also raise mainly affecting developing countries. Therefore, energy has to be expanded in new ways. Renewable energy sources are among the least cost and most feasible solutions, since they are coming from unlimited and accessible sources, they are sustainable (minimum maintenance needs) and will cause no impact towards fragile ecosystems. Further, renewable energies can help decrease CO2 emissions, contributing to climate change mitigation
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Often, access to electricity is designed to provide the service to low income areas where the inhabitants have not enough means to maintain it. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a sustainable access to electricity where the users are also given the means to afford the electricity they consume. It is critical to stress and assess the productive uses of energy in order to foster development. Direct and indirect economic benefits flow from the use of electricity in productive applications within rural areas such as irrigation, food preservation, crop processing, cooling and development of small business which would result in an increase of employment opportunities for the rural population.

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Last, but not least, it is to be remembered that a combination of improved technology and economies of scale has pushed down the costs of renewable energies. The continuing maturation of the renewable energy industry in the developed world will keep on bringing down these costs. Unlike most conventional energy sources, the cost of producing energy from renewable energy sources will decrease dramatically in the future, given the necessary conditions.

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However, despite the favorable trends of renewable energy sources, they are still perceived as high cost options and therefore limit public and private investment in grid connected and off grid applications. The reasons can be found within the benefits enjoyed by the conventional energy systems such as favorable policy frameworks and public financing advantages, giving as a result low capital costs, thought leaving the evidence of significant operating costs.
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Further, the high capital costs of installing renewable energy systems are often inappropriately compared to the capital costs of conventional energy technologies In many cases, particularly in remote locations, the low operation and maintenance costs as well as the inexistent fuel expenses and the increased reliability and the longer expected useful life of renewable energy technologies, offset initial capital costs, but this kind of life cycle accounting is not regularly used as a basis for comparison. In addition, the externalities associated with energy systems, specially the environmental costs associated with fossil fuels, are often not fully accounted.

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CHOOSING THE MOST APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY OPTION FOR RURAL AREAS

The way to determine the most appropriate technological solution implies always a feasibility study based on gathering field data for each specific site. Technical, economic, financial, and socio-cultural considerations must all be including in the decision process to ensure the appropriate choice of technologies. The following basic criteria should be considered to design an optimal power solution:

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LOCATIOIN: The suitability of the site to be electrified, in terms of the topographic and geographical characteristics, will be the first criteria to look at when deciding on the implementation of the most appropriate technology. For example, when planning to build up a small hydropower plant, a site with the largest fall and the shortest distance to the power house should be chosen.
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Wind turbines should not be installed near buildings, trees and other obstacles to avoid turbulence and loss of energy production. Wind turbines should be 2m above any building or obstacles in the area. The site for the turbine should be as near as possible to the control room to reduce line losses
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RESOURCES EVALUATION: Resource evaluation includes the collection of data and interpretation of this data.
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SOLAR: The solar resource is linked to solar irradiation, latitude, altitude, cloud cover and content of water vapor and dust in the air. Therefore, the essential factors to take into account in solar energy application are the monthly average of daily sunshine hours, site latitude, local average cloudy days, foggy days, rainfall days etc
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WIND: The power in the wind is directly related to the cube of the wind speed and to the air density, wind resources become exploitable where average annual wind speeds exceed 4-5 m/s. Essential factors for wind resource evaluation are the monthly average wind speed; height at which wind speeds were measured; site altitude; daily variations in wind speed, the diurnal wind pattern; frequency distribution of wind speed;  primary seasonal wind directions; topography of the site; forestry cover at sight, height of the tallest growth
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SHP: Flow rate (liters/s) and net head (m) of water determine the energy output of a hydropower system. Therefore, the essential factors for SHP resource evaluation: annual flow rate; monthly distribution of the resource
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LOAD ANALYSIS:   A load analysis should cover;

Ø Load type. There are three main groups to be considered: domestic loads (lighting, TV, refrigerator, iron, etc), community loads (schools and public lighting and appliances, water pumping, etc) and commercial loads (electric power tools, etc);

Ø Load calculation or how much power is required;

Ø Load growth: The scale of the system will be determined in terms of load to be served, therefore a study of current and future demand for electricity on site is critical to avoid power shortage. Further, the adoption of flexible system design that can be expanded as load demand increases can mitigate risks associated with unpredictable load growth rates

RATED POWER AND AVERAGE DAILY WORKING HOURS FOR TYPICAL LOADS

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"Over the Next four (4) years; Millions of USD and Billions of NGN (Naira) will be (are Being) Donated, Contributed and Committed into the ‘CRUCODI PROJECTS’ of C-SENS with the Key Focus, Aim and Objective Revolving Around The Revolutionizing of the Mentality, Orientation and the Capacity of our Rural People and getting them up to the Challenges and Benefits of the New Nigerian Project under the Leadership of the President; Muhammadu Buhari"

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JOIN US IS IN ACTUALIZING THAT DREAM

DONATE THROUGH THE OPTIONS ON THE RIGHT
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Credit: ALLIANCE FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION