Uses of Solar Energy

Introduction

Various possibilities of using solar energy exist. Here you find a few applications and experiences with them in projects.

Uses of Solar Energy

Street Lights

• Solar Street Lights

Electric street lights consume high amounts of energy, which makes solar street lights attractive. They can be used at streets, highways, parks and villages. An important impact is increased security. In this section, tips, tricks as well as common sources of failures are described.

Battery Charging Stations

• Solar Battery Charging Stations

Battery charging stations are usually not the first choice for Rural electrification, but they can be viable in remote areas were no other alternatives exist and the income of the population is too low to invest in other solutions as for example solar home systems. Costs, models, leassons learned and exapmles with solar battery charging stations can be read up in this section.

Photovoltaic (PV) for Health Centers

• PV for Health Centers

An unreliable energy source adds to the daily challenges health facilities in rural areas face on a daily basis: If the cold chain is inoperable when supplies arrive, vaccines, blood, and other medicines may go to waste. If a clinic is without lights, patients arriving at night must wait until morning to receive care. Selecting an appropriate source of reliable and sustainable energy as well as introducing measures for efficient energy consumption can help mitigate some of the challenges inherent in operating a health facility in the developing world. This article will provide an overview on options for the improvement of the energy situation in rural health facilities and experience of projects in Ethiopia and Uganda.

Pumping

• Solar Pumping

There are two distinct fields of application for PV pumping systems: drinking water supply and irrigation. Experience from past projects has proven PV pumping systems to be technically mature and suitable for utilization in rural areas of developing countries. The systems in use have very low failure rates and are therefore highly reliable. Economics of PV pumping systems for irrigation is dependent on numerous factors, which are described in the article.

Drying

• Solar Drying

Preservation of agricultural produce is an important challenge in developing countries in order to protect food from getting spoiled. But traditional sun drying methods often yield poor quality. Solar drying facilities combine traditional and industrial methods, meaning low investment costs and high product quality. Experience with Solar drying in Marocco is described in this article.

Cooking

• Cooking with Sun

Solar cookers have repeatedly been seen as a solution to the firewood problem. “Cooking with the sun” also allows the use of a free, effectively inexhaustible source of energy, relieves the workload on women, and reduces the harmful effects on health arising from cooking. Moreover, fewer trees are chopped down, thus stopping deforestation and the advance of desertification, while at the same time guarding against global warming. Roughly half of the million or so solar cookers in the world are used in China. This article gives an overview of types of solar cookers, disseminantion strategies and basic rules of use and diffusion.

Thermal Applications

• Solar Thermal Applications