Off Grid Solar Systems for remote villages--Less than 10% still functional years after install

BB.

Off Grid solar power systems that have installed (usually with government/NGO funds?) rarely are functional a few years after the projects have been installed. Battery failures, and lack of trained personnel and funds seems to be the reasons:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/31/india-solar-energy/

BARBERA, India — Over the past three decades, India has installed thousands of mini solar grids across the country, mostly in remote villages yet to be reached by traditional electric power. Decentralized solar infrastructure — including panels on roofs, electric water pumps and streetlights and local distribution networks — has been touted as a way to electrify the poorest areas and augment the country’s transition away from fossil fuels.

But maintaining these solar systems has proved to be more than the government can handle, leaving deserted panels and batteries far and wide.

India’s experience is a cautionary tale for a world that is racing into renewables, installing solar energy systems at a breakneck speed with scant planning for how to maintain them in the years to come.

“We are rushing to find solutions. I don’t think we are thinking through the unintended consequences of the solutions that we are promoting at this time,” said Anurag Danda, a director in the World Wide Fund for Nature in India. “We might be creating a second-order problem — fixing something here, but creating a problem somewhere else.”

About 4,000 solar mini-grids have been installed in India, of which 3,300 are government financed and owned, according to information collected early this year by Smart Power India, a subsidiary of the Rockefeller Foundation, and provided to The Washington Post. Only 5 percent of the government grids are operational, the group found.

With much publicity, the eastern state of Bihar launched its first “solar village” in 2014. By 2021, Mongabay-India reported that the village’s power station had been turned into a cattle shed. A study by Aviram Sharma, a university researcher in Bihar state, found that almost half of the village’s solar connections went out of use within two years. According to another report, by Mongabay-India, the first solar village in the nearby state of Odisha met a similar fate.

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-Bill

Marc Kurth

I was involved in helping to analyze what happened to a village electrification program in Nigeria. Overestimating solar energy production, underestimating original loads, allowing additional loads to be added, and total disregard for training the end users is a perfect recipes for failure!

Dave Angelini

And you do not have to go to India or the 3rd world. There is plenty of this going on in North America post Covid. Too many professionals have decided to stay home and have found ways to fund it. My little network of installers has really taken a hit. About 20% less posting.

Offgrid power is always a challenge and lack of funding after the install for training/caring is the root cause of these failures.
 Good Article Bill.  Hope you are back to 100% and the old ones are not doing too badly. 

Below is an example of it done right by one of the wrench group M. Morningstar. I can put you in contact if you need a very, very large back-up!

littleharbor2

My battery room looks just like that.......in my dreams. 

706jim

I think it has to do with ownership. Somebody "gives you" funds for a system and you don't really care about it. If it's your hard earned dollars going into a system you can bet YOU will be taking good care of it. My thoughts anyway.