Development of a solar nano-grid for meeting the electricity supply shortage in developing countries (Nigeria as a case study)

Abstract The urban demographic in most developing countries often depend on fossilized fuel generators to meet the electricity supply gap from the national grid. Due to health and environmental concerns with fossilized fuel, local renewable energy resources offer a tentative replacement but often involve high initial upfront costs for their deployment. This work addresses the initial cost barrier issue with renewable energy deployment by focusing on Nigeria as a case study. More specifically, this work proposes a Solar Nano grid concept as an alternative to fossilized generators. The proposed Solar Nano grid concept presents the flexibility to deploy PV systems based on budgetary constraints and the option of upgrading the system (adding newer units to existing ones) in the future. While adding new units to old ones gives rise to compatibility and aging issues in the PV systems, simulation studies show that it is possible to eliminate such concerns by applying a set of design protocols and principles in the proposed Solar Nano grid. An assembled lab-scale Solar Nano grid system validated the simulation findings. With the validated model, this work puts forth possible strategy for reducing the upfront cost of PV system deployment to about 10% of the initial value.