The Role of Off-Grid Houses in the Energy Transition with a Case Study in the Netherlands

Diego F. Quintero Pulido, Marnix V. Ten Kortenaar, Johann L. Hurink and Gerard J.M. Smit
Additional contact information
Diego F. Quintero Pulido: Department of EEMCS, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Marnix V. Ten Kortenaar: Dr Ten B.V., Rondweg 11M/N, 8091 XA Wezep, The Netherlands
Johann L. Hurink: Department of EEMCS, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Gerard J.M. Smit: Department of EEMCS, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Off-grid houses can be considered an important concept to increase the access to electricity throughout the world. Although there are quite some initiatives in place to improve the access to electricity, the implementation rate of practical solutions is far below the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7: Energy (SDG 7) + for 2030. This situation is most apparent in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the current trends of electricity access calculated by the World Bank indicate that this region will not be able to achieve the SDG 7 target. Another worldwide trend which may help to increase electricity access is that currently, a lot of renewable energy generation is realized locally in houses (especially Solar Photovoltaics (PV)). This paper reviews the recent developments to increase the access to electricity in the world and the implementation of off-grid houses in different scenarios. The focus here is on the different efforts to create off-grid houses considering their challenges on a macro and micro level. Moreover, potential research directions for technologies in off-grid houses are presented in more detail. For this, a case description of a possible off-grid house in the Netherlands is presented together with some initial simulations results for this case using solar PV, the Sea-Salt battery, and a Glycerol Fuel Cell. The simulations use the DEMkit software and the analysis is performed using measured house load data for a period in winter and in summer.

Keywords: electricity access; solar PV; off-grid house; sustainable development goals; sea-salt battery; glycerol fuel cell (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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