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Background Solar photovoltaic technology is one of the promising renewable energy solutions of the twenty-first century. It successfully provides electricity to industries, homes and even the transport sector. The decreasing prices of solar modules from 2010 have made Solar Home Systems Technology (SHST) increasingly attractive compared to other renewable energy technologies. Paradoxically, in rural communities of South Africa the usage of SHS remains low. Households continue to rely on unclean energy sources such as firewood for cooking and water heating. Previous efforts to electrify rural communities with SHS have failed considerably. Thus, a comprehensive study was conducted in the Vhembe District, encompassing three villages, to explore this issue and develop a contextualised solution using a behavioural change model. A 35-item questionnaire was randomly administered to 310 households to understand the factors that contribute to the low adoption rate of SHS technology. The data gathered were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics and Amos version 28. Confirmatory factor analysis and hypothesis testing were employed as the principal statistical methods. Results A 12-item model with five distinct factors consolidated into a single measurement model was revealed. All standardised factor loadings exceeded 0.7. Composite reliability values (CR) were above 0.8 and higher than MaxR(H) values, indicating the model’s reliability. Among the five factors influencing SHS adoption (perceived behavioural control, attitude, intention, trust, and subjective norms), only trust and attitude significantly impacted the intention to adopt SHS in the district ( P  < 0.05). Based on these findings, the conceptualised structural model reflected SHS adoption as determined by the integration of the technology’s social, technical and policy factors. Because of this, this should be regarded as a true reflection of the practical and behavioural intentions of local communities. Moreover, in this paper the barriers hindering SHS adoption are explained, emphasising the significance of attitude and trust. Highlights of policy imperatives are included together with a proposal for a contextual framework, and the way of promoting sustainable solutions. Emphasis is placed on the importance of scaling up renewable energy access. Conclusions This research provides a compelling academic exploration of the barriers to the adoption of SHS, the influential role of attitudes and trust, policy considerations, a contextual framework, and the need for promoting sustainable solutions and expanding access to renewable energy. The South African government should lead a change in how solar PV is deployed, considering its social impact, associated technical skills and policy support.

One of the most challenging problems related to the operation of smart microgrids is the optimal home energy management scheme with multiple and conflicting objectives. Moreover, there is a noticeable increase in homes equipped with renewable energy sources (RESs), where the coordination of loads and generation can achieve extra savings and minimize peak loads. In this paper, a solar-powered smart home with optimal energy management is designed in an affordable and secure manner, allowing the owner to control the home from remote and local sites using their smartphones and PCs. The Raspberry Pi 4 B is used as the brain of the proposed smart home automation management system (HAMS). It is used to collect the data from the existing sensors and store them, and then take the decision. The home is monitored using a graphical interface that monitors room temperature, humidity, smoke, and lighting through a set of sensors, as well as PIR sensors to monitor the people movement. This action enables remote control of all home appliances in a safe and emission-free manner. This target is reached using Cayenne, which is an IoT platform, in addition to building some codes related to some appliances and sensors not supported in Cayenne from scratch. Convenience for people with disabilities is considered by using the Amazon Echo Dot (Alexa) to control home appliances and the charging point by voice, implementing the associated code for connecting the Raspberry pi with Alexa from scratch, and simulating the system on LabVIEW. To reach the optimal operation and reduce the operating costs, an optimization framework for the home energy management system (HEMS) is proposed. The operating costs for the day amounted to approximately 16.039 €. There is a decrease in the operating costs by about 23.13%. The consumption decreased after using the smart HAMS by 18.161 kWh. The results of the optimization also show that the least area that can be used to install solar panels to produce the desired energy with the lowest cost is about 118.1039 m2, which is about 23.62% of the total surface area of the home in which the study was conducted. The obtained results prove the effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of automation, security, safety, and low operating costs.

Global fossil fuel reserves are declining due to differential uses, especially for power generation. Everybody can help to do their bit for the environment by using solar energy. Geographically, Bangladesh is a potential zone for harnessing solar energy. In March 2021, the renewable generation capacity in Bangladesh amounted to 722.592 MW, including 67.6% from solar, 31.84% from hydro, and 0.55% from other energy sources, including wind, biogas, and biomass, where 488.662 MW of power originated from over 6 million installed solar power systems. Concurrently, over 42% of rural people still suffer from a lack of electricity, where solar energy can play a vital role. This paper highlights the present status of various forms of solar energy progress in Bangladesh, such as solar parks, solar rooftops, solar irrigation, solar charging stations, solar home systems, solar-powered telecoms, solar street lights, and solar drinking water, which can be viable alternative sources of energy. This review will help decision-makers and investors realize Bangladesh’s up-to-date solar energy scenario and plan better for the development of a sustainable society.

Energy is a necessary source of economic development and social prosperity, linked with primary production and consumption activities worldwide. In this regard, solar home systems (SHSs) are beneficial in two ways, i.e., saving vitality overheads and meeting the energy demand of small enterprises. The current study aims to evaluate the performance of adopting SHS to develop the small-scale industry in Pakistan. An inclusive questionnaire survey was conducted, and respondents were selected using the purposive sampling method. As a step further, we scrutinize the moderating role of awareness and understanding of technology between the node of adopting SHS and the monetary enactment of small-scale industry. We authenticate the model using a sample of 357 respondents by applying the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. The results indicate that low-cost energy through SHSs has a progressive and substantial linkage with the demonstration of small-scale industry and enhances the quality of energy supply in Pakistan. Similarly, awareness and understanding of SHS significantly moderate the relationships between enhanced energy supply through SHS, the quality of SHS, and the performance of the small-scale industry. These findings provide a valuable guideline to the regulation developing authorities that more attention is needed to focus on SHS to further improve the performance of small-scale industry.

This study conducted a questionnaire-led survey to explore the financial feasibility and socio-environmental impacts of stand-alone solar home systems (SHS) through stratified random sampling. Based on the above consideration, fifteen cases of studies of various watt peak (Wp) capacities have been investigated to evaluate the economic viability of solar home systems. The results revealed that most of the cases have positive net present value (NPV) and low payback periods, with an internal rate of return (IRR) value ranging from 16% to 131%, which signifies a high rate of investment exchange. Solar home systems are economically profitable for micro-enterprises and households with low-income generation activities as opposed to the households using it only for lighting. The study found that solar home systems with a capacity above 30 Wp are the most economically viable option, which can also avoid 6.15 to 7.34 tonnes of CO2 emissions during the 20 years of life-cycle, while providing different applications including lighting, recreation, information, health, and economic benefits.

Some 630 million people representing two-thirds of all Africans have no access to electricity, which is identified as a key barrier towards further development. Three main electrification options are considered within our work: grid extensions, mini-grids and solar home systems (SHS). A methodology is applied to all sub-Saharan African countries to identify in high geospatial resolution which electrification option is appropriate taking into account datasets for night light imagery, population distribution and grid infrastructure. Four different scenarios are considered reflecting grid development and electrification constraints due to low population density. The results clearly indicate a dominating role of SHS for achieving a fast electrification of the not supplied people. The share of supplied people by mini-grids is found to be rather low while grid extension serves a large share of the population. The decisive factors for these distinctions are population density and distance to grid. We applied several scenarios and sensitivities to understand the influence of these key parameters. The highest trade-off happens between SHS and grid extension depending on the selected thresholds. Mini-grid deployments remain in the range of 8 to 21%.

As an alternative source of off-grid electric power, solar home systems (SHS) stand out above all other options (e.g., wind, hydro, geo-thermal, tidal systems) because of their wide-scale potential at latitudes less than 45° north or south of the Equator where daily solar irradiance is more constant throughout the year and where the bulk of the Third World’s population live. A questionnaire-based survey study was carried out in a rural area of Bangladesh to ascertain the impacts of SHSs on the lives of the rural population. The installation of an SHS was found to improve the comfort and living standard of rural dwellers. Easier access to TV, radio, cellphone, and the Internet helped the rural population become part of a more global culture. More attractive down-payment and installment package options will allow poor target groups to adopt this system. The standard of SHS components and after-sales service should be improved to ensure sustainably and popularity among the mass population for at least 10 years at minimal cost to the consumer. Our findings can also help policymakers adopt more SHS-friendly policies to further the interests of inhabitants of rural areas that are not connected to the grid.

To improve access to electricity, decentralized, solar-based off-grid solutions like Solar Home Systems (SHSs) and rural micro-grids have recently seen a prolific growth. However, electrical load profiles, usually the first step in determining the electrical sizing of off-grid energy systems, are often non-existent or unreliable, especially when looking at the hitherto un(der)-electrified communities. This paper aims to construct load profiles at the household level for each tier of electricity access as set forth by the multi-tier framework (MTF) for measuring household electricity access. The loads comprise dedicated off-grid appliances, including the so-called super-efficient ones that are increasingly being used by SHSs, reflecting the off-grid appliance market’s remarkable evolution in terms of efficiency and price. This study culminated in devising a stochastic, bottom-up load profile construction methodology with sample load profiles constructed for each tier of the MTF. The methodology exhibits several advantages like scalability and adaptability for specific regions and communities based on community-specific measured or desired electricity usage data. The resulting load profiles for different tiers shed significant light on the technical design directions that current and future off-grid systems must take to satisfy the growing energy demands of the un(der)-electrified regions. Finally, a constructed load profile was also compared with a measured load profile from an SHS active in the field in Rwanda, demonstrating the usability of the methodology.

This paper presents the feasibility of using solar photovoltaics (Solar PV) as the energy source for cooking with special focus on the loss mechanisms and possible remedial measures. If the heat loss is minimized, to reduce the temperature losses, it is possible to cook with a low power source less than 500 W. A slogan has been adopted by the researchers—‘It is temperature that cooks food not heat’, meaning that it is not the flow of energy that cooks food, but rather, that food is cooked when held at a key temperature for a time. The slogan draws attention to the core concept that if heat loss is minimized, maintaining the temperature inside the cooker and the cooking pan, then the cooking process becomes very energy efficient. The paper considers ways to maintain temperature, but with due reference to the ‘art of cooking’, those all-important cultural processes that determine how meals are made. A prototype solar home system e-cooker was designed, fabricated and tested for cooking different foods in Bangladesh. Experimental results are presented to show that cooking is possible using much less power and energy than is commonly thought. A cost analysis is also presented to show that such a cooker can be cost effective in off-grid areas if connected to a properly designed Solar Home System.