Hybrid Decentralised Energy for Remote Communities: Case Studies and the Analysis of the Potential Integration of Rain Energy

Abstract

For remote underdeveloped and sparsely populated regions, the use of national power grids to provide electricity can be both unsustainable and impractical. In recent years, decentralised renewable power has gained popularity, endowing social benefits to the local inhabitants through clean rural electrification. However, power reliability and system autonomy are often the primary technical concerns as current systems are largely single source reliant. Hybrid power systems that utilise multiple complementary renewables can help to reduce the dependency on conventional unclean options. A few selected case studies for both single source and hybrid power systems are reviewed, analysing critical success factors and evaluating existing difficulties. The additional integration of the novel rain-powered kinetic-to-electric generator technology to the existing hybrid model is analysed. As with development in general, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to bringing power to remote communities and the most sustainable solution should be found through analysing local resources, environmental conditions and maximising local involvement.

Rotational Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: A Comprehensive Review on Excitation Elements, Designs, and Performances

“…Moreover, raindrops can be collected using a water tank at a higher platform. The rainwater with gravitational energy could be released into the PZT turbine arm [39,40]. This will rotate the turbine, and thus the PZT will be bend and harvest energy.…”

“…Rotational mechanical energy is one of the significant power sources for piezoelectric energy harvesting. Various types of rotational power sources have been used in the past few years for piezoelectric energy harvesting, such as rotational machines [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], vehicle tire [19][20][21][22][23], human motion [24][25][26][27][28], and even wind [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] and fluids [31,32,[37][38][39][40][41]. They have been applied in various applications, such as tire pressure monitoring system TPMS [42][43][44], WSNs in any rotary machine [11,45,46], wearable device and medical implants [47][48][49][50][51], and others.…”

Performance Analysis of a Hybrid District Heating System: a Case Study of a Small Town in Croatia

“…The hybridisation of a DHS combines two or more renewable or non-renewable energy sources for heat production. Particular energy sources could complement each other on daily and yearly basis and therefore reduce negative aspects of a particular energy source utilisation [31]. In district heating systems, hybridisation could be performed through utilisation of renewable and non-renewable energy sources.…”

Communications for Exploiting Flexible Resources in the Framework of Smart Grids in Islands

“…Thus, to capture all the benefits of renewable-based SG, islands needs to deploy reliable communication systems designed for their particularities. Moreover, island scenarios are analogue to the cases of electrification of isolated rural communities, which are widely studied [10][11][12]. These systems tend to rely on hybrid systems with renewables in island to overcome the lack of electricity [13].…”