Providing Sustainable Life-­‐Services with a Hybrid Micro-­‐Power Plant in Developing Countries: an Assessment of Potential Applications

Abstract

The life-­‐services notion covers meeting the need of education, health, nutrition, housing, water supply and sanitation. Reducing poverty and allowing all the individuals reach the basic needs have always been related with reformulating the politics and reconstructing production and income patterns. Knowing that the traditional developing way is threatening earth’s life and human future generations; the sustainable approach comes up as one of the key points in order to achieve a long term economical and social development and reduce the impacts of the human activities on the planet. The rural electrification issue is on the agenda of the Millennium Development Goals and is key a point in terms of providing life-­‐services and making the development available. The decentralized power generation via renewable energy is a promising way for development. The off-­‐grid electrification approach aims to settle in the nearest demand point, focusing mainly on satisfying the energy demand. This project brings two points together; preventing the absence of basic needs of the locals and achieving it by using an off-­‐grid renewable energy power plant. The research consists on defining the current situation where the case study is being occurred, assessing the different potential solutions in order to cover the social needs’ gap, and investigating their technical characteristics. Thus, the results are focused on the intersection of these three segments, which create a detailed model of the micro-­‐power plant and its features. The main focus is to identify which application provides each life-­‐service and to analyze the effectiveness. This project work has been performed with the company Pamoja AB which was aiming to enter the energy market in developing countries, and under the supervision of a the Division of Energy and Climate Studies (ECS), at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The largest implication of the findings is to modify the Pamoja’s technology and business view according to satisfy the community’s needs.