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The Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) has designed the Zero Carbon Rural Communities project. More than a thousand low-income people have benefited from the installation of hybrid smart microgrids powered by solar panels and biomass.
Low-income residents of the Honduran towns of El Santuario, department of Choluteca, and Torrecilla, department of Valle, have benefited from the installation of smart hybrid renewable energy microgrids thanks to the Zero Carbon Rural Communities project of the Spanish Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV).
Zero Carbon Rural Communities, as explained by the UPV, has been devised by the Institute of Energy Engineering (IIE) of that university, is “fully financed” by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), and in which the Spanish companies Monsolar, Genia Global Energy and Vestel Engineering participate, as well as the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH).
Specifically, it is reported that 1,050 inhabitants of 126 homes in both towns are the recipients of the aforementioned smart hybrid renewable energy microgrids. Thus, at each site a 40 kWp photovoltaic plant has been installed, a 25 kW biomass gasifier as a support system, four battery banks with a storage capacity of 50 kWh, and 6 50 kW inverters for connecting the solar modules, as well as 8 kW network managers.
The set is completed with smart consumption meters, data acquisition and management systems for energy generation and its demand, added to electrical distribution networks and prosumer organizations for the management of energy services.
Reportedly, the expected consumption per home is 86.15 kWh/month, indicated as “recommended for a decent life in rural areas,” and a payment capacity “expressed by the community itself,” it is stated, of 6. 5 euros ($7.06) per home/month.
The aforementioned data have made possible “the sustainability of the projects by covering the costs of operation, maintenance and amortization, in addition to important reductions in the greenhouse effect with respect to both what would have been achieved by electrification with diesel or one carried out with connection to the grid. Honduran electricity company,” it is added.
From IIE-UPV, its director, Tomás Gómez, assures that, in addition to highlighting that the projects in each town have been co-designed, co-executed and maintained by the same stakeholders - after training -, this initiative has been “great news for the local communities, and we have many requests, but we must be very careful when choosing the communities.”
And he explains: “They must be self-managed and not all communities are at that level. In many cases, each family works things out on their own or there are factions fighting over resources. This is human, but it rules them out.”
“We want to do more projects and we are looking for financing where it exists. We have several possibilities, but there is one that looks very good that is probably the one we prioritize,” he concludes. |
