Solar Home Systems (SHS) – have proven successful for basics provisions such as lighting and mobile phone charging but it is not good for big things.
Solution: community-scale solar mini-grids, with larger generation and storage.
Mini-grids can support:
Household cooking – electric stoves instead of fire
Industrial and agricultural uses
Power for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations
Our research directions
We will develop geographical models to identify optimal locations for these mini-grids and evaluate how different technologies and applications can be combined.
We will look into how mini-grids can interact with local distribution networks to maximize their benefits.
We will plan to test in real-world settings by deploying a small set of EVs and suitable charging infrastructure.
We have learnt that the most successful solar mini-grid projects are typically built around a large electricity user, where the loads provide the incentive to deploy generation and storage, so excess generation can be granted to smaller users.
Integrating mini-grids with local distribution networks makes a more resilient community.