Supporting Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development in Africa - Volume I

Sustainability in Infrastructure Development

Elena G. Popkova, Bruno S. Sergi, Lubinda Haabazoka, Julia V. Ragulina, Elena G. Popkova, Bruno S. Sergi, Lubinda Haabazoka, Julia V. Ragulina

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030419783
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030419790
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: International Business
• Index: Business

This edited volume explores and dissects Africa's economic growth and sustainable development using an optimal conceptual model of the progressive continent's development up to and until 2030. Africa is studied not against the background of developed (OECD) and leading developing (e.g. BRICS) countries, but as a separate economy and as a self-sufficient region which follows its own priorities, and implements its own unique opportunities and vectors of growth and development. This first volume addresses the contemporary and topical issues of inclusive growth, digital modernisation, and sustainable development, recommending policy outcomes for the future.

Part ISustainability in Infrastructure Development

© The Author(s) 2020

E. G. Popkova et al. (eds.)Supporting Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development in Africa - Volume Ihttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41979-0_1

Begin Abstract

1. Resilient Off-Grid Solar PV Power Supply for Rural Communities

Sebastian Namukolo¹ and Ackim Zulu¹

(1)

School of Engineering, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia

Sebastian Namukolo (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Ackim Zulu

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

1 Introduction

It is well-recognised that energy is a basic requirement to human life and activities. This requirement is so fundamental that there have been strong movements for access to energy to be declared a human right (Bradbrook and Gardam 2006; Pandey 2018). While the general use of energy is in the economic sectors of residential, commercial, transportation and industrial endeavours, the specific use of energy at the basic level is in preparing food, keeping warm and lighting. There is now a more precise and universally accepted definition and specification of energy access at the household level which includes attributes of capacity, reliability, affordability and cleanliness (IEA 2017). It is at this level that access to energy is being touted to the legal position of a human right. The United Nations has adopted the core attributes of the modern definition of energy access in formulating the 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG7) which has the objective to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy” (UN 2018). The renewable forms of energy, such as that of solar, wind and biomass, carry the characteristics spelt by the objective of the SDG7. As a general position, there is a clear relationship between the level of consumption of energy and national development, with the developed countries tending to have higher energy consumption per capita than the developing countries. However, the disparities of energy access distribution within communities of developing countries come to the fore when comparing the rural areas to the urban areas. According to authoritative sources (IEA 2017), the rural population constitutes about 84% of the population of the developing regions identified as lacking energy.

Conversion to modern energy which is clean and affordable energy is a big challenge for the rural populations of the developing countries, who currently rely on the traditional biomass for energy. Although this position typifies the outlook of much of sub-Saharan Africa, there is a steady electrification of rural communities using renewable energy sources, where decentralised and distributed systems have proved to be cost-effective compared to grid-extension projects. Among the renewable technologies applied in decentralised and distributed energy system, photovoltaic (PV) systems on the solar resource is becoming dominant, spurred on by the favourable conditions of improving technologies and falling costs of components of off-grid solar systems in the form of PV panels, batteries and end-user’s energy-efficient appliances.

While the technology for off-grid PV systems for rural applications can be said to be robust on the score of performance to produce the required energy, one overlooked aspect in the design of the system is on the aspect of reliability of the system when installed in situations of exposure to the elements of lightning. Lightning effects can have a disruptive effect on the operation of the PV system, exposing the system to undesirable downtimes, if not permanent breakdown. It is argued in the work of this paper that a reliable PV system for off-grid PV system could include a component of protection against the damaging effects of lightning, despite the additional protection increasing the initial capital cost of what this far has been heralded as an affordable cost.

Off-grid PV energy supply has the potential to possess all attributes of Modern Energy Technology (MET) (Da Silva et al. 2014), substantially satisfying all the levels in the multi-tier definition of energy access (Bhatia and Angelou 2015). It is postulated that the diffusion and assimilation of MET such as off-grid PV solar plants in rural area could follow the same pattern of development in sub-Saharan Africa as that for the Mobile Telecommunication of Communication (MTT). In areas of sub-Saharan Africa, MTT installations are susceptible to the effects of lighting, and therefore deliberate measures are applied in the design and installation to protect the telecommunication infrastructure. In the same vein, and as a corollary to the trajectory of the development of MTT, the proposal in this work is that, since off-grid PV plants in sub-Saharan Africa are in similar environments and operating conditions as MTTs, they are subjected to the same vulnerability caused by lightning and would use similar principles for protection. This paper proposes an arrangement of lightning protection for the off-grid PV plants which adds a level of resilience to the operation of the energy plant. The methodology followed to derive the combined arrangement is to synthesise the design considerations for off-grid PV power plant with those for lightning protection of general electrical installations. The process to synthesise elements of PV design and lightning protection design is grounded in the concepts of cross-functional design as opposed to isolated-functional approach (Grady 2010). The presentation of the paper is arranged as follows: the configuration of an off-grid PV system is presented in Sect. 2, while a discussion of lightning and its effect on electrical installation is in Sect. 3. The proposed architecture for the lightning protection system in an off-grid PV plant is given in Sect. 4, which is followed by the conclusion in Sect. 5.

2 Off-Grid PV System

PV systems are deployed in on-grid or off-grid systems but are generally and usefully deployed as off-grid systems in rural areas due to absence of or difficulties to connecting to the grid. The off-grid form normally subsists as a stand-alone PV system. A solar PV stand-alone power system has the most benefits in remote or rural areas where it exerts its advantages in economy, space utilisation and environmental considerations (Chilumbu and Zulu 2017).

A solar PV stand-alone system typically has three main components and auxiliaries. The three main components are the PV array, the battery bank and the inverter-charger. The PV array converts light energy to electrical energy in the DC form under conditions of sunlight. The storage batteries are charged by the DC power, and the inverter is used to convert the DC voltage of the battery to the more-widely used AC form which can be fed to AC loads. There is a limited amount of loads which can be powered directly by DC power. The charge controller, maximum power point tracker (MPPT) and other controls constitute the auxiliaries. More details of these components are described in the following subsections.

2.1 PV Modules

A PV module is built up of individual PV cells which, by sunlight action, generate DC electrical voltage. The process of electricity generation by the solar cell is that, when the surface of the thin wafer of the cell is struck by photons, the electrons get knocked loose from the atoms in the semiconductor material, creating electron-hole pairs. If the circuit is completed by connecting the terminals of the positive and negative sides of the material in an electrical circuit, an electric current (photocurrent) flows in the arrangement of generating power. The technology of PV cells is continually evolving, but at present three types are common for commercial solar cells, namely, monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon and amorphous silicon (Ali and Salih 2013).

2.2 Energy Storage

As a PV system would be non-functional when there is no sunlight, practical application of stand-alone systems requires some method to store energy collected during times of sunshine. The most widely used and most economical energy storage technology for PV application is the battery.

The battery will store electrical energy for use during non-sunshine periods or will serve loads during the day when the PV modules are not generating sufficient power to meet usage requirements. PV systems use deep-cycle batteries, which are different from the common shallow-cycle batteries used in automobiles. Deep-cycle batteries, usually of lead-acid type, are designed to controllably disch...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Part I. Sustainability in Infrastructure Development
• Part II. Infrastructure Project Delivery Systems
• Back Matter