Taqsolre Project

The electrification of rural areas in developing countries would give people access to a range of energy services previously not available to them. Small systems would power domestic appliances such as lights, television sets, mobile phones and computers. On a community scale, the development of schools and health care would be facilitated. Residential life, farming and irrigation could all be mechanised and upgraded.

PV solar energy is considered to be the most promising system to deliver electrification to rural communities. Unfortunately, the introduction of PV systems is hampered by technical, social and economic barriers that tend to limit dissemination of the technology. The scope of the Taqsolre project was therefore broad, but the EU-funded project aimed to identify the root causes of the problems in a drive to find solutions.

Project partners at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid tackled the issue of dependability of stand-alone PV systems. For reliability of a system, the ability to maintain it and the availability of replacement parts are also relevant. The analysis also took into account the effect of component failure. One innovative approach was inclusion of the effect of loss of power or load probability.

To aid the implementation of PV systems, the team also provided a quality reference for the inverter as a guide for users and procurers. The inverter effectively manages the power and creates a flow of supply that is sufficiently strong and consistent. In addition to the reliability criterion, safety, energy performance, ease of use, installation and maintenance were covered.

Future targets of research will no doubt build on the progress of systems set up In Latin America, Africa and Asia that are actively using the results of this project. As part of the initiative, the Madrid team set up a practical seminar in Lima for technicians involved in this scheme whose objective was to set up 1000 solar home systems.

The results of the analysis are available and have been targeted towards researchers and systems designers. These have been distributed through peer journals, conferences and a hands-on approach at workshops.

(Source ResearchEU)

For more details: http://www.taqsolre.net

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