Renewable Energy for Sustainable Rural Village Power
It is estimated that two billion people live without electricity and its services worldwide. In addition, there is a sizeable number of rural villages that have limited electrical service, with either part-day operation by diesel generator or partial electrification. For many villages connected to the grid, power is often sporadically available and of poor quality. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, has initiated a program that involves hybrid systems, to address these potential electricity opportunities in rural villages through the application of renewable energy technologies.1 The objective of this program is to develop and implement applications that demonstrate the technical performance, economic competitiveness, operational viability, and environmental benefits of renewable rural electric solutions, compared to the conventional options of line extension and isolated diesel mini-grids. Hybrid systems are multi-disciplinary, multi-technology, multi-application programs composed of six activities, including village applications development, computer model development, systems analysis, pilot project development, technical assistance, and Internet-based village power project data base. While the current program emphasizes wind, photovoltaics (PV), and their hybrids with diesel generator, micro-hydro and micro-biomass technologies may be integrated in the future. Thirteen countries are actively engaged in hybrid systems for rural and remote applications and another dozen countries have requested assistance in exploring wind/PV hybrid systems within their territories. At present rural/remote site application of renewable technologies is the fastest growing aspect of renewable energy worldwide.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-99GO10337
- OSTI ID:
- 12195
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-720-26871
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
17 WIND ENERGY
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
COLORADO
COMPUTERS
ECONOMICS
ELECTRICITY
HYBRID SYSTEMS
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY
PERFORMANCE
POWER GRID
PV
REMOTE APPLICATIONS
RENEWABLE ENERGY
RENEWABLE RURAL ELECTRIC SOLUTIONS
RURAL AREAS
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
VIABILITY
VILLAGE APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT
VILLAGE POWER
WIND ENERGY
WIND POWER