Empowering Low-Income Communities with Sustainable Decentralized Renewable Energy-Based Mini-Grids
With less than seven years before the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals deadline, the race is on to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services in low-income communities in developing countries. These communities are mostly distant from central grids and economically...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Energies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/23/7741 |
| _version_ | 1827592301776470016 |
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| author | Kofi Nyarko Jonathan Whale Tania Urmee |
| author_facet | Kofi Nyarko Jonathan Whale Tania Urmee |
| author_sort | Kofi Nyarko |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With less than seven years before the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals deadline, the race is on to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services in low-income communities in developing countries. These communities are mostly distant from central grids and economically suitable for off-grid mini-grid systems. Data suggest that these mini-grids are not sustained and often fail after a few years of operation. The authors investigated the challenges of an existing mini-grid system in Ghana and proposed measures to overcome them. Field surveys with expert stakeholders and users of the system were conducted to examine the challenges. The results showed that 98% of the residents use power for domestic purposes. The inability to pay for the power consumed was the highest-ranked challenge the users faced followed by power quality issues. From the expert stakeholders’ perspectives, economic challenges were the most significant barriers with a mean score range of 3.92 to 4.73 on a 1–5 Likert scale, followed by political challenges. The researchers propose that implementers must optimize non-hardware costs and promote local component manufacturing to address these economic challenges. In addition, we suggest that the government review the government-driven policy and involve the private sector. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T01:51:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3e925585bd05430586c9b1b310837d4d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1996-1073 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T01:51:40Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Energies |
| spelling | doaj.art-3e925585bd05430586c9b1b310837d4d2023-12-08T15:14:36ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732023-11-011623774110.3390/en16237741Empowering Low-Income Communities with Sustainable Decentralized Renewable Energy-Based Mini-GridsKofi Nyarko0Jonathan Whale1Tania Urmee2Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua P.O. Box KF 981, GhanaDiscipline of Engineering and Energy, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, AustraliaDiscipline of Engineering and Energy, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, AustraliaWith less than seven years before the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals deadline, the race is on to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services in low-income communities in developing countries. These communities are mostly distant from central grids and economically suitable for off-grid mini-grid systems. Data suggest that these mini-grids are not sustained and often fail after a few years of operation. The authors investigated the challenges of an existing mini-grid system in Ghana and proposed measures to overcome them. Field surveys with expert stakeholders and users of the system were conducted to examine the challenges. The results showed that 98% of the residents use power for domestic purposes. The inability to pay for the power consumed was the highest-ranked challenge the users faced followed by power quality issues. From the expert stakeholders’ perspectives, economic challenges were the most significant barriers with a mean score range of 3.92 to 4.73 on a 1–5 Likert scale, followed by political challenges. The researchers propose that implementers must optimize non-hardware costs and promote local component manufacturing to address these economic challenges. In addition, we suggest that the government review the government-driven policy and involve the private sector.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/23/7741mini-gridsustainable energyrenewable energylow-income communitiesdeveloping countryPESTLE analysis |
| spellingShingle | Kofi Nyarko Jonathan Whale Tania Urmee Empowering Low-Income Communities with Sustainable Decentralized Renewable Energy-Based Mini-Grids Energies mini-grid sustainable energy renewable energy low-income communities developing country PESTLE analysis |
| title | Empowering Low-Income Communities with Sustainable Decentralized Renewable Energy-Based Mini-Grids |
| title_full | Empowering Low-Income Communities with Sustainable Decentralized Renewable Energy-Based Mini-Grids |
| title_fullStr | Empowering Low-Income Communities with Sustainable Decentralized Renewable Energy-Based Mini-Grids |
| title_full_unstemmed | Empowering Low-Income Communities with Sustainable Decentralized Renewable Energy-Based Mini-Grids |
| title_short | Empowering Low-Income Communities with Sustainable Decentralized Renewable Energy-Based Mini-Grids |
| title_sort | empowering low income communities with sustainable decentralized renewable energy based mini grids |
| topic | mini-grid sustainable energy renewable energy low-income communities developing country PESTLE analysis |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/23/7741 |
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