Hi Elizabeth,

Chris Moller is back from holiday and has provided me with these responses to your excellent questions

Question 1:

This is the feedback I’ve received from quite a few people I’ve spoken to about off-grid electricity in Ghana (where though based in Cambridge UK, I’m Treasurer of a Vocational College teaching electrical installation) .  Most people in rural areas have relatives in the town who have access to grid electricity.  They themselves go into town and see retailers offering all kinds of shiny appliances (which they generally couldn’t afford, even if they had the electricity to run them).  This is what they dream about having in their village.  They see 12V Solar Home Systems as being very limited (which they are), and they are reluctant to spend what little cash they have on something so far short of their dream.  Personally, I’m with you on this – I think they would be better off with a limited system than with nothing, but that’s not what they say to me.  I haven’t done a statistically significant poll on this, but I’d be very keen to help organise one.

Concerning reliability, there is throughout Africa a deep distrust of centralised systems (you probably don’t need me to tell you that!) and the helplessness one feels when grid electricity has (perhaps very frequent) power cuts.  A self-contained SHS puts me completely in control, and if the battery runs out, I have only myself to blame – which is perhaps preferable. A village minigrid is somewhere in between these two extremes.  I would like to see every village have an autonomous minigrid, with connections between villages turned on when it’s useful to share – but each village will need a technically competent person to oversee it.

Question 2: 

A DC village minigrid is less expensive to install than an AC one, and requires less technical skills. It is also possible to gracefully upgrade a standalone SHS to a DC village minigrid connection, and/or to provide peer-to-peer energy trading, without changing appliances.  This is proving to be quite popular in some countries, notably in South America and Bangladesh (check out Solshare - https://me-solshare.com/ ).  However, it may well be a stepping stone to an AC minigrid offering 230VAC.  SolShare says a DC household costs $100, compared with $900 for an AC one.

Question 3:

Our roles are technical, but the work we’re doing on standards and demonstrators feeds into the IET’s and the IEC’s standardisation work, and we are working with GOGLA on standards for the Developing World.  Many GOGLA members offer PAYGO products with very affordable payment plans.  They are shipping millions of systems annually.

To Chris’ responses I would like to add the point that what we really want to achieve is a transition to adoption of more sustainable infrastructure globally. We’re going to be pushing stakeholders in economically developed countries to innovate in that direction. At the moment we are grouping stakeholders as follows; Energy Suppliers, Consumers, Manufacturers and Constructors. We’d welcome your perspective on any of the above!

Hi Elizabeth,

Chris Moller is back from holiday and has provided me with these responses to your excellent questions

Question 1:

This is the feedback I’ve received from quite a few people I’ve spoken to about off-grid electricity in Ghana (where though based in Cambridge UK, I’m Treasurer of a Vocational College teaching electrical installation) .  Most people in rural areas have relatives in the town who have access to grid electricity.  They themselves go into town and see retailers offering all kinds of shiny appliances (which they generally couldn’t afford, even if they had the electricity to run them).  This is what they dream about having in their village.  They see 12V Solar Home Systems as being very limited (which they are), and they are reluctant to spend what little cash they have on something so far short of their dream.  Personally, I’m with you on this – I think they would be better off with a limited system than with nothing, but that’s not what they say to me.  I haven’t done a statistically significant poll on this, but I’d be very keen to help organise one.

Concerning reliability, there is throughout Africa a deep distrust of centralised systems (you probably don’t need me to tell you that!) and the helplessness one feels when grid electricity has (perhaps very frequent) power cuts.  A self-contained SHS puts me completely in control, and if the battery runs out, I have only myself to blame – which is perhaps preferable. A village minigrid is somewhere in between these two extremes.  I would like to see every village have an autonomous minigrid, with connections between villages turned on when it’s useful to share – but each village will need a technically competent person to oversee it.

Question 2: 

A DC village minigrid is less expensive to install than an AC one, and requires less technical skills. It is also possible to gracefully upgrade a standalone SHS to a DC village minigrid connection, and/or to provide peer-to-peer energy trading, without changing appliances.  This is proving to be quite popular in some countries, notably in South America and Bangladesh (check out Solshare - https://me-solshare.com/ ).  However, it may well be a stepping stone to an AC minigrid offering 230VAC.  SolShare says a DC household costs $100, compared with $900 for an AC one.

Question 3:

Our roles are technical, but the work we’re doing on standards and demonstrators feeds into the IET’s and the IEC’s standardisation work, and we are working with GOGLA on standards for the Developing World.  Many GOGLA members offer PAYGO products with very affordable payment plans.  They are shipping millions of systems annually.

To Chris’ responses I would like to add the point that what we really want to achieve is a transition to adoption of more sustainable infrastructure globally. We’re going to be pushing stakeholders in economically developed countries to innovate in that direction. At the moment we are grouping stakeholders as follows; Energy Suppliers, Consumers, Manufacturers and Constructors. We’d welcome your perspective on any of the above!