Minigrid

Chris Sparkes, lead technician at UK solar installer Solar Fast tells pv magazine simply throwing money at the PV industry will not suffice.

“Productive use of electricity” (PUE) has been the buzzword in the African solar industry for the past two years. The African Solar Industry Association (AFSIA) has prepared a catalog of solar-based PUE solutions for the continent, including a plethora of new solar off-grid and on-grid systems.

India’s Vivasvan Solar has designed a foldable solar structure mounted on a trolley. The system has mechanisms to prevent damage to the panels during transit and is especially useful for agricultural farms.

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) is demonstrating how a solar-powered refrigeration unit and dryer could be self-sustaining and improve food security in Kenya.

The minigrid space continues to attract a lot of attention from development partners in Africa. Minigrids can actually generate profits, so there is no doubt that commercial finance players will eventually jump on the bandwagon, according to the Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA).

Kenya’s government plans to build 137 solar minigrids across remote locations in the East African country. The project received $150 million in funding from the World Bank.

Discovery Battery’s new lithium iron phosphate battery system has a nominal voltage of 51.2 V and a capacity of 100 Ah. Up to six 5.12 kWh battery modules can be stacked in a single enclosure, and up to four enclosures can be connected in parallel for a total capacity of 120 kWh.

Rapidly deploying 5.2 GW of planned solar and storage in Puerto Rico, a possibility raised in a report by six national laboratories, would require an improvement in the Puerto Rico utility’s practices. A mandated procurement process has suffered delays at many steps.

PV integration in smart grids is a complex but highly relevant issue, with various aspects to be considered to develop different scenarios. Researchers in the IEA-PVPS Task 14 program are conducting a survey to collect opinions from peers in the PV branch to perform such an analysis.

While the climate summit held at Sharm El Sheikh last month prompted pledges of raised funding for solar lanterns and single-panel systems, the money allocated to date is woefully short of what has been estimated would be required to provide universal access to electricity this decade. Drew Corbyn of Netherlands-based global off-grid solar body GOGLA, outlines three urgent courses of action to accelerate access to electricity.