Tiny solar-plus-battery kits yield annual savings exceeding hardware cost
Outlet: PV Magazine
Researchers found multiple benefits after distributing free solar panels and battery systems with USB ports to 800 rural households in Ghana.
For a household in Ghana without electricity, a tiny solar panel paired with a battery that provides indoor lighting and charges mobile phones can save the equivalent of $70 per year, exceeding the one-time hardware cost of the solar-plus-battery kit, researchers found.
About 800 households in rural Ghana received free solar kits through a study by university researchers, titled “Impact of solar lighting kits on the lives of the poor,” published by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. The nonprofit Elumis Foundation, which provides solar kits to families without electricity in developing countries, collaborated on the study.
While the one-tenth of humanity without electricity waits for grid electricity to become “accessible, cheaper and reliable,” off-grid electricity can be an effective solution, said a joint statement by study authors Serguei Netessine, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Bhavani Shanker Uppari, a professor at Singapore Management University.
The authors, who had previously evaluated rechargeable solar lamps in Rwanda, found that while solar home systems cost more than solar lamps, they also have much higher benefits.
If solar-plus-battery kits are donated, “our study shows that we do not need to donate costlier kits to result in larger impacts.” The kits only need bulbs that are bright enough, and USB ports to recharge lights, batteries and radios, said the researchers.
Photo credit: Bhavani Shanker Uppari