The cost and emissions advantages of incorporating anchor loads into solar mini-grids in India
| Autor: | Clementine L. Chambon, Jenny Nelson, Muriel Hauser, Hamish Beath, Ajay Gambhir, Philip Sandwell, Sheridan Few |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Battery (electricity)
Energy demand business.industry Anchor loads Reliability (computer networking) Rural Electrification India TJ807-830 Environmental economics Grid Renewable energy sources National Grid Renewable energy Solar PV Energy for Health Environmental science Revenue Electricity Mini-grid business |
| Zdroj: | Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition, Vol 1, Iss, Pp 100003-(2021) |
| Popis: | Renewables-based mini-grids have the potential to improve electricity access with lower emissions and better reliability than national grids. However, these systems have a challenging cost to revenue ratio, hindering their implementation. Combining residential loads with an anchor load, a relatively large non-domestic user, can help to improve mini-grid economics. Using measured electricity demand data from India and energy modelling, we assess the cost and emissions advantages of integrating health clinics as anchor loads within domestic solar mini-grids. For comparison, we also assess the ability of the national grid to meet our demand scenarios using monitored grid data. We apply a scenario-based approach, using separate domestic and anchor load demand profiles, and both in combination; we test meeting two levels of energy demand, 95% and 100%; and compare systems using PV and batteries, diesel, and hybrid generation. We find that the national grid has poor availability, at just over 50% at the most comparable monitoring site; and that it would meet a lower fraction of energy demand for our anchor load scenarios than the domestic only ones. For the off-grid systems, we find substantial cost and emissions reductions with anchor loads relative to demand scenarios without anchor loads. At 95% of demand met, we find PV and battery systems are 14-22% cheaper than diesel-only systems, with 10 times lower carbon intensity. Our findings illustrate the role off-grid systems can play in the provision of reliable low-carbon electricity and highlight the advantages of incorporating anchor loads like health centres into such systems. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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