There is an ongoing struggle to meet the energy demand in remote areas of the world. We haven’t seen that many good articles measuring the efficacy of different approaches to providing power to remote regions.
This study conducted by Hajat et al., examines the effectiveness with which productive use containers (PUC) equipped with photovoltaic panels, can provide basic services to the dispersed areas of South Africa, all the while increasing entrepreneurship, gender equality, socioeconomic well being, and overall quality of life.
A total of six PUCs, supporting businesses run by local entrepreneurs, were deployed in the field at sites not currently served by the national electricity supply grid. Examples of typical business included sewing, laundry services, hairdressers, office support services, and food and supply shops. The PUCs were powered by either 10 or 12 panel systems, charging deep-cycle lead acid batteries with 12V or 24V. The DC power was then in turn inverted and delivered as 220V AC output to business equipment. Additional equipment included a charge controller, which maintains proper voltage levels in the batteries, hence extending the lifespan of these expensive pieces of equipment.
Three of the six PUCs were monitored over a 140-day sample period. Two 24V systems and one 12V system was monitored. Dataloggers were utilized to record daily trends in battery voltage and inverter use. A supplemental questionnaire was used to identify the benefits and limitations from a consumer’s perspective.
Results proved not to be atypical, although much could be gleaned from the differences in production from the 12V and 24V systems. Load shed patterns for the 12V system revealed the highest frequency of events occurring in the pre-dawn hours. Load shed is a critical function performed by a charge controller, as it disconnects (sheds) discretionary loads at a pre-set low voltage level to prevent a battery from excessive discharge. The results and subsequent interviews uncovered that phantom loads and use of PUCs electricity at night for business purposes had the potential to severely discharge batteries. Larger, 24V systems did not have this problem.
Other results illustrate that maximum daily appliance usage occurred during the midday and afternoon hours, also the best hours of the day for solar potential. The middle of the day also corresponded to the time of day at which the batteries reached their top of charge level. These results are not surprising, although the frequency at which all systems reached their top of charge level is low, and indicates that all systems, especially the 12V system, may be undersized for the amount of usage occurring.
Essentially, these are good problems to have and it only points to the successes and utility of reusing an old shipping container to shelter businesses running on clean renewable energy. The authors suggest that maybe small-scale commercial electrification projects in place of the more common residential system approach, can offer long-term and lasting results that begin at the base level of these societies. In short, “this system brings with it a combination of social, economic and environmental positives which could serve as a foundation for encouraging further sustainable development”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.