 Efficacy of solar power units for small-scale businesses in a remote rural area, South AfricaA. Hajat, D. Banks, R. Aiken and C.M. Shackleton Renewable Energy, 2009, vol. 34, issue 12, 2722-2727 Abstract: Much work has considered the practicalities and affordability of solar systems for domestic energy supplies in remote rural areas. There is less understanding of its utility for small-scale business enterprises in such areas. We examined the patterns of use of two 12V and one 24V systems for small-scale enterprises housed in transportable containers. Monitoring of load shed and top of charge indicated that the 12V systems were inadequate to meet the requirements of the enterprises. The 24V operation performed a lot better. Despite some technical limitations the system offered a number of social, economic and environmental positives; primarily the offering of business products not otherwise available in the area, incomes to the entrepreneurs and greater connectivity with regional centres through office services such as cell-phone charging and faxing. Customers of the small-scale enterprises felt that their presence in the area saved them some money because they no longer had to travel as frequently to regional urban centres. Keywords: Load shed; Productive use container; Small-scale businesses; Solar power; Top of charge (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:34:y:2009:i:12:p:2722-2727 DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2009.05.027 Access Statistics for this article Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier |
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