Village Power `97. Proceedings

It is estimated that two billion people live without electricity and its services. In addition, there is a sizable number of rural villages that have limited electrical service, with either part-day operation by diesel gen-sets or partial electrification (local school or community center and several nearby houses). For many villages connected to the grid, power is often sporadically available and of poor quality. The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, has initiated a program to address these potential electricity opportunities in rural villages through the application of renewable energy (RE) technologies. The objective of this program is to develop and implement applications that demonstrate the technical performance, economic competitiveness, operational viability, and environmental benefits of renewable rural electric solutions, compared to the conventional options of line extension and isolated diesel mini-grids. These four attributes foster sustainability; therefore, the program is entitled Renewables for Sustainable Village Power (RSVP). The RSVP program is a multi-disciplinary, multi-technology, multi-application program composed of six key activities, including village application development, computer model development, systems analysis, pilot project development, technical assistance, and an Internet-based village power project database. The current program emphasizes wind, photovoltaics (PV), and their hybrids with diesel gen-sets. NREL`s RSVP team is currently involved in rural electricity projects in thirteen countries, with U.S., foreign, and internationally based agencies and institutions. This document contains reports presented at the Proceedings of Village Power, 1997. Individual projects have been processed separately for the United States Department of Energy databases