EXPANSION OPPORTUNITY FOR OFF-GRID PV TO GO MAINSTREAM: CASE STUDIES FOR VILLAGE ELECTRIFICATION AND TELECOM POWER-UP IN INDIA

摘要

The authors are part of an extended team which has successfully installed ～1MW of PV in India to provide rural electrification via micro-grids. After the initial installations, follow-on activity has scaled-up and expanded the level of PV more than threefold. Several expansion case studies provide lessons learned. Three types of installations are developed: rural village electrification, water-pump stations, and also Telecom tower stations. A common and important lesson learned emerges from these applications, namely that mixing the PV with batteries and with diesel generators provides the best, and most cost effective path for power-up. This conclusion is particularly relevant to the Telecom industry which has major growth potential for PV, but which has requirements for dispatchability and for cost management. The overall conclusion is mat only for water pumps is PV alone a viable option. The solution for rural electrification is PV+battery, and for Telecom, a mix of PV/battery/diesel. Key lessons learned from the applications are discussed with the view of optimized performing solution for each application. A visionary forecast projects this market to develop to ＞10's of GW over the next decades.