Design of a Sustainable Energy System for a Community Center in rural Mozambique : A Minor Field Study in Mozambique

Sammanfattning: Access to energy is an important part in the development of most countries and societies, linked to both social and economic growth. Nevertheless, 70% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa does not have access to electricity, which brings consequences to several of these areas. A country to which this largely applies is Mozambique, where the percentage of the country's population that had access to electricity in 2021 was only 31.5%. Working towards the goal of electrifying the least developed countries in a sustainable way, solar technology is believed to have potential to play a vital role, as 60% of the best terrestrial-based global solar resources of the world are located in sub-Saharan Africa. Mini-grids and solar off-grid solutions can further help address the issue of lack of electricity access, especially in rural areas. In previous studies carried out in the village Linga Linga in Mozambique, off-grid solar solutions have been implemented for a small energy demand. With the intention of giving a larger part of the village’s population access to energy services such as light, phone charging and computer access, this thesis will investigate and design an off-grid PV system for a community center in the village. The main research question that will be answered in this report is "How can solar energy be used to supply a community center in the village Linga Linga with a low-cost, reliable and sustainable electricity supply?". To answer the research question, relevant data and information were collected through a literature study on the situation in Mozambique, off-grid PV systems and on PV system components such as inverters, batteries, PV panels and charge controllers. Interviews were also carried out in the village to be able to calculate the expected energy demand of the community center. The community center’s daily energy demand for weekends was estimated to be the highest, at 7 544 Wh with a maximum power demand of 1 230 W. To meet this requirement, the main components were dimensioned so that the system had a maximum power of 2 000 W, a battery storage capacity of 750 Ah and a system voltage of 24 V. For this system, the approximate total cost of the main components was calculated to 56 120 SEK.