Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 10.3
The main features of a basic solar home system, and two
technicians installing a system on a rural village home in Sri Lanka.
eliminating power cables around. The local solar energy companies
are currently creating new jobs for young people and install about
2,000 solar home systems per month. This rate seems to be very
impressive, but Sri Lanka has about 1 million rural homes that
cannotbeeasilyservedbythenationalgrid,anditwouldtakeabout
40 years to complete village electrification using solar power at the
current rate. To achieve full village electrification in five years, an
eight-fold expansion of the solar power sector is required. There
is an urgent need for both the expansion of existing companies
and an increase in the number of solar energy companies within
Sri Lanka. Concentrating on a 'large number of small systems' will
have a huge impact at this stage for the needy people in developing
countries.
Businesses based on solar energy are now rapidly gaining
popularity in many developing countries. The beauty of the
developmentofthisindustryisthatwhenthenationalgriddevelops
and expands, the households can use these solar panels for other
small applications.
In current solar home systems, low-power fluorescent lamps are
used with DC electricity. Over the coming years, domestic lighting is
likelytobereplacedbylow-powerlight-emittingdiodes(LEDs),also
operating on DC electricity, consuminglow electric power.
With the introduction of LED lamps for domestic lighting, the
solar home systems now popular in rural areas in developing
