Photovoltaic (PV) microgrids are increasingly emerging as favourable off-grid power options for the electrification of rural settlements and remote industrial operations in Africa, largely owing to a continued increase in the diesel price, coupled with the mainstreaming of PV technologies, microgrid producer Canadian Solar strategic accounts head Trevor de Vries said.

Defending the increasing ‘hype’ around microgrids, he told the recent Solar Indaba that remote microgrids had various cost-effective applications in Africa, a continent where millions of people still lacked access to electricity.

There were opportunities in rural electrification, as some 30-million households were still without power, while microgrid-generated power could also be used for critical water pumping and purification.

In addition, microgrid technology could serve as a basic healthcare enabler, as some one-billion people on the continent were served by healthcare facilities that did not have access to electricity.

“But the low-hanging fruit here is the mining industry, which largely uses expensive diesel generators and offers the opportunity for generator retrofits. While the initial capital expenditure associated with diesel generators is low, their support and maintenance costs are prohibitive.

“For example, a mining company currently operating in Mozambique is paying around $3/kWh to run its diesel generators at night,” he commented.

The microgrid sector’s “big” opportunity, however, lay in mobile communication in Africa.

According to De Vries, there were some 64 000 off-grid telecommunication towers that were powered remotely and supported a mobile industry in which there was “huge demand” for electricity.

“At the moment, there are around 548- million users that spend between $2 and $3 a day on charging their phones because they don’t have access to power,” he outlined.

The challenges on the continent were, however, restrictive, and included “terrible” logistics, a lack of clear standards for microgrids, fragmented regulation, utility “politics” and costly storage.

“Corruption also remains a challenge. Some utilities are interested in microgrids, but at a price, which is unique to Africa,” he noted.