Innovative Mobile Minigrid-scale Service and Storage for Rapid Scaling of Rural Energy Access in Kenya

为了让发展中国家的农村社区获得生产性用途，如焊接或面粉加工，他们需要获得小型电网规模的电力（通常> 10千瓦）。然而，由于所需的资本支出以及在全天和每周有效匹配负载和供应方面的困难，微型电网在商业上是众所周知的不可持续的。我们在整个东非农村发展工作中注意到的一个特别问题是，在中等规模的社区，非常高的电力负荷，如铣床，有时每周只使用一天或两天，这正是造成这种不平衡的负荷状况的原因。我们提议开发和测试一种移动的"迷你电网"规模的能源接入解决方案。通过在拖车上安装10千瓦的快速部署太阳能，我们将创造一种解决方案，每天可以开到不同的村庄，不仅提供高功率的偶尔服务，如面粉碾磨或焊接，而且还可以用于一系列其他生产性用途，如电池充电、打印和复印，这些在这些社区中可能通常不存在。对于移动性，拖车的重量将是至关重要的，存储技术将做出最大的贡献。因此，我们将与英国锂离子电池合作伙伴Aceleron合作，进一步开发其创新的二次寿命电池，从小型电池到更大的小型电网规模存储，在15 - 20千瓦时的水平。这些电池是由肯尼亚的Aceleron利用当地的电子垃圾制造的，电池具有无与伦比的环境可持续性。集成的电池/移动解决方案将为那些无法证明自己的小型电网的成本/功率合理性的社区提供生产水平的能源，同时为设备提供可靠的高负载系数，使移动的微型电网运营商能够有效利用和回收潜力。虽然社区生产服务提供商可能是创新的最重要市场，我们还将研究在需要快速获得临时电力的任何地方使用相同技术的其他更合适的用途，例如将其部署到灾区或难民营，或者作为永久微型电网中设备故障的备用。

In order for rural communities in the developing world to access productive uses like welding or flour milling, they require access to minigrid-scale power (typically \>10kwp). Yet minigrids are notoriously commercially unsustainable, due to the capital expenditure required, and difficulties in efficiently matching loads and supply throughout the day and week. One particular problem we have noticed in our work in rural development throughout East Africa is that very high power loads, like milling machines, are sometimes only used 1 or 2 days a week in mid-size communities, contributing precisely to that uneven load profile.To facilitate energy access and access to these productive uses in more small and mid-size communities in Africa, we are proposing to develop and test a mobile "minigrid" scale energy access solution.By installing 10kw of rapidly deployable solar power in a trailer, we would create a solution which could be driven to a different village each day, offering not only the high-power occasional services like flour milling or welding, but also a range of other productive uses like battery charging, printing and photocopying that might not usually be available in those communities.For mobility, the weight of the trailer will be critical, with the storage technology making the greatest contribution. Therefore we will be working with UK Li-Ion battery partner Aceleron for them to further develop their innovative 2nd-life batteries from small-scale units to much larger minigrid-scale storage, at the 15-20kWh level. These batteries are contructed by Aceleron in Kenya from local e-waste, for unrivalled environmental sustainability in a battery.The integrated battery/mobility solution will provide productive-level energy access to communities that would otherwise not be able to justify the cost/power of their own minigrid, while at the same time providing a reliably high load-factor for the equipment, allowing efficient utilisation and payback potential from the mobile minigrid operator.While community productive services providers are likely to be the most significant market for the innovation, we will also investigate other more niche uses for the same technology anywhere that requires rapid access to temporary power, for example to deploy it to disaster areas or refugee camps, or as a backup for equipment failure in permanent minigrids.