Rural electrification
Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity.
[1] Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into obstacles in developing nations.
If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development.
Additionally, schools with access to electricity are able to recruit higher quality teachers and have seen improvements on test scores and graduation rates, raising the human capital entering the labor force in the future.
In 2014, rural communities in India gained more than US$21 million from increased economic activity driven by recent additions of electricity.
Sterilization measures will be improved and the implementation of high tech machines such as x-rays or ultrasound scanners can provide doctors and nurses the tools they need to perform.
Due to their geographical location and relatively low aggregate demand, expanding the nationwide grid to rural areas is expensive and challenging.
The following technologies are used extensively:[9] Researchers [11][12] pointed out that while many supportive policies have been put in place, cost for providing electricity to remote villages remains high.
Another issue is that village location was determined historically based on soil, water, storage, etc., and might not be optimal for renewable energy generation.
In this model, villages in a selected area are linked up via an optimal network, which in turn connects to a few centralized generation facilities located at spots with better renewable energy resources.
Based on multiplier-accelerated A* algorithm, the researchers have devised an effective method for evaluating all possible connections under complex geographical structure and hence practically optimize network design.
[citation needed] Karanja describes the role that a coordinated approach to rural electrification can play in Kenya and the challenges that arise.
[16][18] Although the Action Plan has been very successful at attracting private finance, the political/institutional challenges it has faced reflect the experiences of reform-based electrification schemes across Sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2000, the Federal government of Brazil, under the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration, launched the Luz no Campo program to expand the distribution of electricity in Brazilian domiciles, with a focus on rural households.
The REP extends the national grid through the construction of electrical distribution pole lines to un-electrified areas and provides house wiring assistance through a loan programme to householders.
At a USAID-funded Analysis and Investigation for Low Emission (AILEG) project symposium, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, on Tuesday, July 9, 2013, Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell stated that the REP has also been mandated to complete its target of providing electricity to 100 per cent of rural areas.
In March 2015 he told a newspaper that, by 2017, "we should no longer have REP in the way we do now", adding that if the Government finds it too challenging to run power lines into communities, it will use solar.
[27] The University of Minnesota Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, working jointly with Northern States Power Company (NSP, now Xcel Energy), conducted an experiment, providing electricity to nine farms in the Red Wing area.
In September 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would spend $398.5 million in infrastructure projects, by way of loans, that seek to improve electricity service in rural areas.
According to Smart Cities Dive, "The largest loan will send $68.5 million to back a solar farm run by NextEra Energy Resources in Arkansas, which could meet the needs of 21,000 homes."
At the end of 2016, India had around 45.6GW of installed renewable energy with a vast amount of work and investment required to meet their lofty targets.
Programs such as The JNN solar mission, and Pradhan Mantri Gram Vidyut Yojana is also known as the Saubhagya Scheme have been announced to fasten the pace of electrification and diversify the procedure.
The outbreak of World War II in Europe lead to shortages of fuel and materials and the electrification process was brought to a virtual halt.
In the early 1950s the Rural Electrification scheme gradually brought electric power to the countryside, a process that was completed on the mainland in 1973 (although it wasn't until 2003 that the last of the inhabited offshore islands were fully connected).
Like many other microgrid companies, Gram Oorja has set out to provide electricity to the millions who lack access to power in rural India.
Local ownership of the project is one of the key tenets of Gram Oorja's business model, so they encouraged participation in the set up and management of the mini-grid.
[39] GRID is an Indian start-up aimed at facilitating sustainable economic and social development through low-cost energy solutions in rural areas.
For example, GRID has set up solar-powered reverse osmosis filtration plants in rural India to help eliminate water insecurity.
GRID's filtration plant is able to provide 20,000 to 30,000 liters of clean water per day, which helps to alleviate this issue and reduce the spread of water-borne illness.
