Pre-feasibility study for PV electrfication of off-grid rural communities

Abstract

A pre-feasibility study has been undertaken for the electrification of the rural off-grid village of Hurhudedanda, Nepal. PV solar was deemed most suitable after an assessment of local wind, micro-hydro, solar and biogas potential. To determine the most cost-effective PV configuration, different scenarios were simulated using RETscreenTM. Decentralized Solar Home Systems (SHS) resulted in lower life cycle costs than centralized PV generation (1.25 $/kWh and 1.46 $/kWh respectively) and might be the best alternative for a first stage of electrification. A final study has been undertaken to assess the proposed system’s ability to deal with a forecasted load increase