Assessment of pico hydro as an option for off-grid electrification in Kenya

Maher, Patrick; Smith, Nigel; Williams, Arthur

doi:10.1016/s0960-1481(02)00216-1

Cited by 83 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…This setup offers a reliable source of energy for communities and villages in remote locations that lack access to a central utility power-line. Off-grid PV systems are vital to rural communities by providing electricity for basic needs and have a particularly large impact in developing countries such as India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Kenya, where only a small percent of rural communities are grid-connected [147,154].…”

Section: Photovoltaics In Design and Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of utility-scale solar energy

Hernandez

Easter

Murphy-Mariscal

et al. 2014

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

506

316

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Greenhouse gas emissions Land use and land cover change Photovoltaic Renewable energy a b s t r a c t Renewable energy is a promising alternative to fossil fuel-based energy, but its development can require a complex set of environmental tradeoffs. A recent increase in solar energy systems, especially large, centralized installations, underscores the urgency of understanding their environmental interactions. Synthesizing literature across numerous disciplines, we review direct and indirect environmental impacts -both beneficial and adverse -of utility-scale solar energy (USSE) development, including impacts on biodiversity, land-use and land-cover change, soils, water resources, and human health. Additionally, we review feedbacks between USSE infrastructure and land-atmosphere interactions and the potential for USSE systems to mitigate climate change. Several characteristics and development strategies of USSE systems have low environmental impacts relative to other energy systems, including other renewables. We show opportunities to increase USSE environmental co-benefits, the permitting and regulatory constraints and opportunities of USSE, and highlight future research directions to better understand the nexus between USSE and the environment. Increasing the environmental compatibility of USSE systems will maximize the efficacy of this key renewable energy source in mitigating climatic and global environmental change.

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Section: Photovoltaics In Design and Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of utility-scale solar energy

Hernandez

Easter

Murphy-Mariscal

et al. 2014

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

506

316

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Reference [5] does not consider hydro PV hybrid systems, but presents an interesting comparison between hydroelectric and PV ystems. Reference [6] evaluates the hydrogen production integrated with a hydro PV hybrid system in micro scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feasibility Study of a Hydro PV Hybrid System Operating at a Dam for Water Supply in Southern Brazil

Teixeira¹,

Caux²,

Beluco³

et al. 2015

JPEE

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Dams for water supply usually represent an untapped hydroelectric potential. It is a small energetic potential, in most situations, usually requiring a particular solution to be viable. The use of pumps as power turbines often represents an alternative that enables the power generation in hydraulic structures already in operation, as is the case of dams in water supply systems. This potential can be exploited in conjunction with the implementation of PV modules on the water surface, installed on floating structures, both operating in a hydro PV hybrid system. The floating structure can also contribute to reducing the evaporation of water and providing a small increase in hydroelectric power available. This paper presents a pre-feasibility study for implementation of a hydroelectric power plant and PV modules on floating structures in the reservoir formed by the dam of Val de Serra, in southern Brazil. The dam is operated to provide drinking water to about 60% of the population of the city of Santa Maria, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil. The pre-feasibility study conducted with Homer software, version Legacy, indicated that the hydroelectric plant with a capacity of 227 kW can operate together with 60 kW of PV modules. This combination will result (in one of the configurations considered) in an initial cost of USD$ 1715.83 per kW installed and a cost of energy of USD$ 0.059/kWh.

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“…It has been shown to be a cost effective method of off-grid electricity generation, especially in hilly and mountainous regions [1]. A standard pico-hydro system is a stand-alone unit, comprising a turbine driving a generator, a shunt controller, known as an electronic load controller (ELC) regulating either the voltage or frequency output, and a low-voltage distribution system with consumer loads, such as lighting, mobile phone chargers and radios [2,3]. The turbine is designed to operate at a constant speed to generate the grid frequency; the ELC maintaining a constant load on generator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A controller for single-phase parallel inverters in a variable-head pico-hydropower off-grid network

Williamson

Griffo

Stark

et al. 2016

Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks

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The majority of off-grid pico-hydropower systems use a single turbine and generator, connected directly to an AC network resulting in clusters of isolated, power-limited, single failure-prone networks. The use of inverters has been previously proposed in order to decouple the turbine's rotational speed from the network frequency in these remote microgrids. This facilitates the use of multiple generators and the creation of expandable, reliable networks with redundancy. This paper presents an inverter controller for this situation, and addresses a combination of challenges that is specific to expandable pico-hydropower networks in geographically dispersed remote communities. Multiple variable-head turbines are connected to a network, whose individual local hydraulic heads vary due to flow changes over the seasons, and the network has no single generator that dominates and no master controller, but instead identical independent controllers that do not communicate. The controller presented here uses an output voltage and frequency droop controller, with inner synchronous reference frame control loops for the fundamental voltage and current. The control coefficients are automatically adjusted to the available local hydraulic head. Simulation and experimental results show that the power is shared amongst generators, proportionally to the locally available power, in steady and dynamic situations. Harmonic compensation loops are proposed: these reduce the output total harmonic distortion (THD) of a single inverter from 9.53% to 1.45% for a non-linear load. Geographically distributed operation in resistive networks is investigated, and the results show that the controller achieves plug-and-play capability for remote off-grid networks with multiple and different pico-hydropower generators.

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Assessment of pico hydro as an option for off-grid electrification in Kenya

Cited by 83 publications

References 1 publication

Environmental impacts of utility-scale solar energy

Environmental impacts of utility-scale solar energy

Feasibility Study of a Hydro PV Hybrid System Operating at a Dam for Water Supply in Southern Brazil

A controller for single-phase parallel inverters in a variable-head pico-hydropower off-grid network

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