Beyond the grid

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Solar-powered technology is proving to be an ever more commonplace method of sourcing power to people who live in remote communities, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.

Photovoltaics, or PV for short, is a solar technology that uses solar cells or solar photovoltaic arrays to convert light from the sun directly into electricity. PV is also the term used to describe the field of study relating to this technology. Solar cells produce direct current electricity from light, which can be used to power equipment or, for example, charge a battery.

The manufacture of photovoltaic cells has expanded dramatically in recent years. Total nominal ‘peak power' of installed solar PV arrays was around 3 700 MW at the end of 2005, a 42% increase on the previous year, but most of this consisted of grid-connected applications. Such installations may be ground-mounted or integrated into buildings. Financial incentives, such as preferential feed-in tariffs for solar-generated electricity and net metering, have supported solar PV installations in developed countries such as Germany, Japan and the US but now they are becoming increasingly popular in the Middle East and North Africa. The first practical application of photovoltaics was for providing power to orbiting satellites or other spacecraft and then mainly for grid-connected power generation. But now there is a growing world market for providing off-grid power to remote or isolated communities.

Afghan grant

It is becoming increasingly obvious that solar energy has the capacity to dramatically enhance the quality of life in remote (often poor) villages which cannot be or simply are not connected to power grids. One such country feeling the benefits of solar technology is Afghanistan.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently approved a US$750000 grant to develop solar technology in isolated rural areas. It is grants such as this that make independent power sourcing in poorer countries a feasible reality. Most of the Afghan population has no access to modern energy sources like electricity and gas and is forced to rely on more traditional fuels like firewood. This, in turn, depletes the country's forests and damages the environment. There are, for this reason, very real environmental incentives as well as practical reasons for solar technology to flourish and its use as a climate change mitigation technology is increasing its popularity.

The benefits of solar power in countries with high temperatures are obvious: Afghanistan, for example, has an average of 300 days sunshine per year. The ADB grant will be used to provide solar energy systems to communities on a pilot basis and also provide training for ten people from separate areas as solar technicians. They will in turn train more people from their community. It is hoped that another benefit of the energy systems is that they can be used to provide lighting for literacy programmes, provide water for clinics and power water pumps and irrigation systems.

Moroccan project

Another country feeling the benefits of solar photovoltaic technology is Morocco. Many rural areas have difficulty accessing the national electricity web, and, in order to address this, in 2005 the Moroccan National Electricity Office invited tenders to install 34500 solar cells in 13 Moroccan provinces. This project is part of a policy aimed at raising the rate of renewable energies in the country's energy mix from 4% to 10% by 2012, and to increase the contribution of these energies to satisfy 20% of electrical demand. The company which won this tender was Spain-based Isofoton - the largest photovoltaic manufacturer in Europe and the eighth-largest in the world. As well as projects like this, the company has strong links with both North and South America.

Like many other major players in solar manufacturing, Isofoton has experienced healthy growth in the last decade. For example, its new production facility in Malaga has increased capacity from 65 MW to over 100 MW since its completion in 2005. The company's subsidiary in Morocco employs about 70 people and here it has installed collectors capable of generating between 75 to 200 W. According to a company spokesperson, solar power is "the only viable energy in both technical and economic terms that can be used in areas such as this. The Moroccan project spans an area over 100 000 km²: the areas concerned are mainly Beni Mellal (centre), Marrakech (centre), Taroudant (south), Tiznit (south), Guelmim (south), Ouarzazate (south) and Errachidia."

It is the realisation that solar energy is both a unique and economically viable power source that has led to annual economic expansion of up to 50% in one year for companies like Isofoton, and therefore the sourcing of solar energy to poor remote areas is now a fast-expanding market that is both economically and technically practical even in the poorest countries.

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