Abstract
Only 12% of rural areas have access to electricity in which off-grids serve 11% in Rwanda and the government of Rwanda (GoR) is aiming to electrify the whole country by 2024. However, rural areas are remote and scattered which will require higher capital investment to extending the grid engendering slow electrification. Though mini-grids and stand-alone systems are playing a great role in increasing the rate of electrification, the pace is not quite high because their prices are not affordable particularly to penury households which are hegemony in rural areas. In this paper, applicability study of battery charging stations in off-grid for rural electrification is presented that aims to combine together at least 10 solar panels in a charging station that are currently normally owned by only 10 households (HH). The focus is to electrify more from already available photovoltaic panels in the area, minimizing upfront cost as well as the whole system price allowing lowest income families to access the electricity, and local ownership.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
USAID, Rwanda Power Africa Fact Sheet. https://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica/rwanda. Accessed 14 Nov 2018
Buchana, P., Ustun, T.S.: The role of microgrids & renewable energy in addressing Sub-Saharan Africa’s current and future energy needs. In: IREC 2015 The Sixth International Renewable Energy Congress, pp. 1–6. IEEE, March 2015
REG, Rwanda Energy Group, Off Solutions. http://www.reg.rw/what-we-do/offgrid-solutions/mini-grids/. Accessed 2018
Williams, N.J., Jaramillo, P., Taneja, J., Ustun, T.S.: Enabling private sector investment in microgrid-based rural electrification in developing countries: a review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 52, 1268–1281 (2015)
Nkiriki, J., Ustun, T.S.: Mini-grid policy directions for decentralized smart energy models in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: 2017 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference Europe (ISGT-Europe), pp. 1–6. IEEE, September 2017
Nizeyimana, P., Lee, K.W., Sim, S.: A study on the classification of households in Rwanda based on factor scores. 29(2), 547–555 (2018)
Republic of Rwanda-Ministry of Local Government, Revised Ubudehe Categories Are Out. http://www.minaloc.gov.rw/index.php?id=469&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=461&cHash=73a0ab3f4bcf956765ddc0eb2b88b538. Accessed 28 Apr 2016
Selen, K.: Rwanda: Off-grid Sector Status Report. Energizing Development (EnDev), Rwanda, April 2018. https://sun-connect-news.org/fileadmin/DATEIEN/Dateien/New/EnDev_Rwanda_-_Off-Grid_Sector_Status_Report_2017.pdf
Museruka, C., Mutabazi, A.: Assessment of global solar radiation over Rwanda. In: 2007 International Conference on Clean Electrical Power, pp. 670–676. IEEE, May 2007
Zimmerle, D.J., Kuppa, S.H.: Statistical failure estimation method to size off-grid electrical systems for villages in developing countries. In: 2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), pp. 1–6. IEEE, October 2017
Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme (RECP), Higher Education for Renewable Energy, Country Mapping Rwanda. http://www.eueipdf.org/sites/default/files/field_publication_file/RECP_Higher_Education_Country_Mapping_Rwanda_May2015.pdf. Accessed 10 May 2015
Mobisol Rwanda, BASIC System Package. https://www.mobisol.rw/rwanda/en/. Accessed 2018
MININFRA, Ministry of Infrastructure, Rural Electrification Strategy. http://www.mininfra.gov.rw/fileadmin/user_upload/aircraft/Rural_Electrification_Strategy.pdf. Accessed 01 June 2016
World Bank Group [US], Mobisol Family SHS – 19″ TV. https://www.lightingglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/LG-SSS_mb-shs19tv_v3_ext-2.pdf
World Bank Group [US], Mobisol Bright Future 200 W SHS-32″ TV. https://www.lightingglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/LG-SSS_mb-bf200.pdf
Energy Institute, Microgrid Company Advances Economic Development in Rwanda. https://medium.com/@csuenergy/microgrid-company-advances-economic-development-in-rwanda-57b1319cc6e6. Accessed 14 Nov 2018
Techmoran Entrepreneurship in Africa, Rwanda’s Meshpower Launches a Solar Mini-Grid to Open Up New Economic Opportunities. https://techmoran.com/2018/05/16/rwandas-meshpower-launches-a-solar-mini-grid-to-open-up-new-economic-opportunities/. Accessed 16 May 2018
Currencies.Zone, Historic Rwandan Franc United States Dollar. http://currencies.zone/historic/rwanda-franc/us-dollar/december-2015. Accessed 2019
Uwibambe, J.: Design of photovoltaic system for rural electrification in Rwanda. Master’s thesis, Universitetet i Agder (University of Agder) (2017)
Solar Online Australia, Solar System Basics – How Solar Power Works! https://www.solaronline.com.au/solar_system_basics.html. Accessed 2018
Cohen, I.: Mobile for development utilities, mobisol, pay-as-you-go solar for entrepreneurs in Rwanda. GSMA, London (2016). https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Mobisol-Pay-as-you-go-Solar-for-Entrepreneurs-in-Rwanda.Pdf
eBay, Solar Panels 100 W. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=solar+panels+100+watt
National Bank of Rwanda, Exchange Rate For Today. https://www.bnr.rw/index.php?id=23. Accessed 19 Apr 2019
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Rashed, G.I., Shyirambere, G., Gasore, G. (2020). Applicability Study of Battery Charging Stations in Off-grid for Rural Electrification – The Case of Rwanda. In: Liu, Y., Wang, L., Zhao, L., Yu, Z. (eds) Advances in Natural Computation, Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery. ICNC-FSKD 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1075. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32591-6_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32591-6_29
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-32590-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-32591-6
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)