Even though large-scale electricity networks have existed for more than a century, thousands of primary and secondary schools have no electricity. More than 80 percent of children in Sub-Saharan Africa attend primary schools that lack electricity, more than a quarter of village schools in India lack electricity access, and fewer than half of Peruvian schools are electrified. Collectively, nearly 200 million children attend schools not connected to any type of electricity supply—a number greater than the populations of Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia or Japan. Throughout the globe, certain countries and regions lead the way in school electrification while others lag behind. Through the lens of energy and education geography, this Article identifies a series of interconnected challenges to electrifying schools. Obstacles span financing and technical reliability to bias in educational and energy funding to inability of electrification to yield net positive learning outcomes. Despite these challenges, solutions do exist, as the activities of emerging energy leaders demonstrate. High upfront costs can be mitigated by tapping into diverse financing streams and distributing risk through public private partnerships. Technical problems can be countered by stable policy frameworks with strong technical standards and certification schemes. Electrification efforts can be coupled with household and cooking programs that build community. This Article shows that schools can provide students with the light, heat, and modern tools of teaching they deserve if planners, investors, and policymakers make determined, coordinated efforts at providing energy for education.

The geography of energy and education: leaders, laggards, and lessons for achieving primary and secondary school electrification

Energy access is critical for health, education and social welfare improvements. In countries like Ethiopia, with a low electrification rate and with the majority of the population located in rural areas, about 76% of primary schools do not have access to electricity. This limits the hours of classes and does not allow the use of basic or modern teaching resources. Off-grid solutions have emerged as potential cost-effective alternatives to electrify rural areas and schools, but the availability of off-grid appliances and the size of the system can lead to different solutions. Therefore, this study proposes a DC microgrid system to supply the electricity demand of a rural school located in Ethiopia, considering load estimation scenarios with standard and high-efficiency appliances. The simulation results show that the designed DC microgrid is a valid option to electrify the rural school under each load and generation scenarios. The system costs were also evaluated, and the high-efficiency appliances option has a 51% lower cost. The study also applies to other sub-Saharan countries in the region with very low energy access rates and abundant solar energy, thus giving a large contribution to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Education Goal 4 (SDG 4).

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/23/6379/pdf

Design and Modeling of a Standalone DC-Microgrid for Off-Grid Schools in Rural Areas of Developing Countries

Quality education and schools have a key role to play in the sustainable development of society. Unfortunately, many remote communities in developing countries fail to enjoy access to quality education due to a lack of electricity, thereby interrupting regular school services in the villages. The main objective of the paper contributes to understanding the importance of the energy-education accord, and aims to curb the social challenges prevailing in the villages. Specifically, the paper suggests a technical intervention by designing a hybrid renewable energy system for such schools. The approach is demonstrated through a case study with a load demand of approximately 4 kWh/d, comprising a class size of 40 students. A techno-economic evaluation of the energy system reveals the levelized cost of energy of the system at USD 0.22 per kWh, which may be affordable considering number of other aspects, outlined in this paper, to enable a larger uptake of such systems in developing countries. ©2019. CBIORE-IJRED. All rights reserved

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Microgrids for rural schools: An energy-education accord to curb societal challenges for sustainable rural developments

Africa is endowed with a very important renewable energy potential. Exploited, this potential permits the continent not only to get out of the energy poverty it is suffering from but also to ensure a sustainable development. In the present work, the economic viability of renewable power generation is assessed and analyzed. Then an identification and discussion of the impacts that the renewable energy deployment could have on socio-economic progress, health, education, gender equity and rural development are carried out.

/pdf/overview-of-economic-viability-and-social-impact-of-28wbj58h1l.pdf

Overview of Economic Viability and Social Impact of Renewable Energy Deployment in Africa

Access to affordable and clean energy to the rural communities in the developing nations has been the pivotal aim on a global stage. Universal access to reliable and clean electricity to the ever-increasing global population has directed the governmental bodies to switch towards a decentralized energy access approach. However, the efforts of the nodal agencies around the world have not yielded the desired results. A knowledge gap in terms of a village typology that corresponds to an inappropriate electrification system selection has been identified. A suitable typology for remote villages in developing countries is subsequently defined for rural electrification system classification. Also, amendments to the technical standard IEC/TS 62257-2 for rural electrification are suggested, which is decisive in the techno-economic assessments of microgrids in such contexts.

Defining a remote village typology to improve the technical standard for off-grid electrification system design

This paper describes Brazil's photovoltaic rural school electrification program developed in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, from its demonstration phase through its current larger-scale (near 1000 systems) deployment. Based upon several successful initial demonstration projects, which have shown PV could be both reliable and cost effective in remote rural areas, over previous 10-year period, CEMIG-Energetic Company of Minas Gerais (the largest utility in Brazil) has developed a PV rural-electrification program that is driven by quality-of-life improvement objectives for the electricity consumer. The Luz no Saber has been specifically designed inside a larger-scale rural electrification program (Luz para Todos - M.G.). It has been implemented in rural areas of Minas Gerais State by CEMIG, in collaboration with state and federal governments. The main objective has been to find an energy delivery alternative to grid connection for dispersed rural communities to realize the recent "Universal Attendance Law" (10438). That is, starting July, 2002, electric utilities in Brazil have been required to electrify the entire areas they serve. Because of solar resource availability and geographical constraints, PV is the most important complementary technology to satisfy the universal electrical delivery to rural and remote communities in Minas Gerais. The technology allows the access of lower-income people to lighting, communication, as well as a variety of educational delivery opportunities. A major impact has been reducing illiteracy and improving the quality of education. The major conclusion of this 10-year CEMIG investment is that an adequate service infrastructure is required to make projects viable, mainly characterized by a technical network which guarantees the system's technical performance, system design, qualified technical support, and also avoids a lack of unreasonable and unfulfilled user expectations. The lessons learned under several phases of the CEMIG's PV programmes focused on the "Luz no Saber Program" are detailed in this paper, with the conclusion that they have helped avoid potential failures in this sustainability model program

L. Vilhena

Papers

The Important Contribution of Photovoltaics in a Rural School Electrification Program