Improving shoestring surveys for off-grid humanitarian power projects : kilowatts for humanity and KoboCollect

Field surveys are commonplace and essential for off-grid power projects in developing countries where availability of data may be scarce. Critical decisions such as site selection, technology choice, business models employed, and approach to community engagement are all greatly assisted by data that can be gathered through field surveys. Paper-based field surveys, the de facto standard approach, are prone to error, slow to deploy and adjust, and have other practical challenges despite the obvious advantage of having fewer technological dependencies. Over recent years, improvement in freely available surveying software, smartphones and tablets, as well as good cellular coverage throughout the world offers humanitarian organizations an opportunity to implement digital field surveys with relative ease. This article presents the experience implementing KoboCollect by Kilowatts for Humanity (KWH), a non-profit that implements sustainable energy kiosks in developing countries. KoboCollect is an open-source data collection software platform designed to support humanitarian and research organizations. In this paper, limitations of paper-based field surveys from previous KWH projects, as well as from the extant literature, are considered with respect to their ultimate impact on the implementation of the development project. A new approach is presented in which survey questions are refined based on past experience and are directly related to pre-defined project indicators. Key benefits and challenges are identified from the adoption of the new approach and methodological questions around sampling and decision-making following data collection are discussed. The new method is discussed in the context of a KWH survey project being conducted in the summer of 2018 in three locations in the Philippines. A major goal of this work is to open a discussion about the successes and failures of the shoestring, paper-based survey methodology and point to current best practices

2016 Projects Day Booklet

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The business model for access to affordable re on economic, social, and environmental value : A review

Renewable energy has the potential to power the global economy and effective business models will significantly aid this goal, being among the most critical factors in spurring expansion in the energy industry. This paper reviews articles that discuss business models in the renewable energy sector. Long-term economic, social, and ecological stability is concerned. Previous studies have neglected the environmental sustainability of renewable energy business models, focusing on their technical, social, and economic aspects, primarily for energy access. The business models for solar home and pico systems relied heavily on lowering costs through creative payment plans for customers to be commercially viable. The demand for mini-grids requires end users to launch businesses that can leverage electrification initiatives to be commercially via-ble. The success of a mini-grid depends on the average consumption and reve-nue per user. Affordability, unmet energy needs, low electricity demand, lack of financing, unfamiliar business models, and immature markets have imped-ed energy access in Indonesia. Our analysis revealed that future studies in this field must include environmental sustainability to provide a complete picture for decision-makers. Renewable energy needs in Indonesia can be achieved through the sustainability domain, policy makers can consult this evidence set

Sustainability Assessment of Wireless Community Grid for Off-Grid Communities: A Case Study for Haiti

Affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy service is fundamental to human, social and economic development. Approximately 1.2 billion people lack access to basic energy services. There exists a huge energy access gap between urban centers and rural areas. Approximately 84% of the people deprived of energy access live in rural areas. Existing rural electrification options including grid extension, mini-grids, and stand-alone solar home systems, have limited penetration in rural regions. Entrepreneurs, with support from governments and international institutions, have experimented with different business mechanisms to facilitate energy delivery. A significant amount of investment is being made for rural electrification but many projects are not self-sustaining. This research develops a new approach, ‘Wireless Community Grid’, to provide basic energy services to rural households and evaluates if the approach meets the desired features of affordability, profitability, and scalability. The approach comprises of a central charging station operated by local vendors, where portable power systems are charged and rented to homeowners. Each portable power system provides power to each home in the form of indoor lighting and device charging. Each power system is swapped from the station at a regular interval. To understand the energy needs and expenses of a rural population, surveys were conducted in Borgne, Haiti. The major sources for lighting are kerosene lamps, rechargeable bulbs and candles. For charging lights and phones, people have to walk to a vendor with solar systems or generators. Based on three surveyed communities, each household typically spends $2.50 a week on energy services and local vendors make$0.70 a week from each household served. To explore the sustainability of the Wireless Community Grid approach, three preliminary evaluation models were developed. First, a techno-economic tool was used to evaluate the relationship between reliability and cost. Based on the developed tool, a system consisting of 350 W solar array and 58 portable power units with 283 Wh capacity would meet the basic energy needs of a community of 49 households at the lowest present value. Second, a life cycle assessment was performed to study the environmental impacts. It was observed that the proposed system would provide a yearly reduction of 382 kg of CO2 equivalents and 197 kg of crude oil equivalents for each household served compared to the current energy state. Finally, a social business structure was proposed to maximize the number of people impacted while keeping the system affordable and self-sustainable. While keeping the household energy cost level at $2.50/week for energy services, the capital investment of$6100 for a community system, could be recovered in less than 2 years. Over 10 years, the returns on a single investment would be able to expand to 64 similar communities and provide energy services to around 19,000 people. The wireless community grid approach appears to be affordable for end-users and provides profits for local vendors while being financially and environmentally sustainable and highly scalable