SIMbaLink: Towards a sustainable and feasible solar rural electrification system

Nahana Schelling, Meredith J. Hasson, Sara Leeun Huong, Ariel Nevarez, Wei Chih Lu, Matt Tierney, Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, Harald Scḧutzeichel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Rural areas lack sustainable electrification solutions. Although solar solutions hold promise, they are fundamentally constrained by high maintenance costs (due to low user densities, equipment failure, poor handling) and a complete lack of accountability. In this paper, we describe our experiences deploying more than 5,000 Solar Home Systems in Ethiopia and the sustainability problems we faced. Towards developing a decentralized and sustainable solar solution, we have designed SIMbaLink, an extremely low-cost real-time solar monitoring system that significantly reduces both the maintenance costs and the time to repair. By explicitly exposing the real-time status of a solar system to all parties concerned, SIMbaLink addresses the lack of accountability and trust concerns. SIMbaLink can be easily integrated with existing solar systems and can reduce equipment failure rates through early detection of system malfunctions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationICTD 2010 - Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Event4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, ICTD 2010 - London, United Kingdom
Duration: Dec 13 2010Dec 16 2010

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Other

Other4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, ICTD 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityLondon
Period12/13/1012/16/10

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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