Evaluation of the photovoltaic technology for rural electrification improvement

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-87).Energy use, especially electricity, in China is rapidly growing, but China faced two challenges in developing new energy supply: global climate changes and unbalanced economic development between urban and rural regions. Considering its geographical limitation and climate change problem, electricity generation using renewable energy source will be useful. Among various renewable energy technologies, photovoltaic (PV) is the most viable option for the rural electrification in China. First, sunlight, which is source of energy for PV, is sufficient in rural regions in China. Second, technically PVs can be installed in various sizes and can be applicable to individual houses or towns. Third, the cost competitiveness of PV with low labor cost and scale of business is achieved. However, low income of rural population and low level of awareness are barrier to implement PV system in rural region. To solve the issues Chinese government intervention is necessary. In this thesis, we first reviewed rural electrification with various angles - market, PV price, PV applications, and technologies. Then more specifically we researched energy usage, PV industry and PV market in China. History of rural electrification activities and results of them in China are also presented. We analyzed China's success and failure factors of rural electrification through the value chain analysis, Porter's diamond model, and system dynamics analysis. We suggested the business strategy as to the level of government intervention based on the analysis.by Kyoung Suk Cho.S.M