@MIT’s Portable Solar Microgrids for India – How Jamshedpur Villagers make a living selling Electricity

“......With this technology this certainly can change, as the owners of the system can easily supply surplus power to their neighbors. This can ultimately make the system more affordable and thus should encourage more uptake of off­grid renewable energy systems”

Indian Energy Professional Saurabh H. Mehta, commenting on the Portable Solar Microgrids developed by a team from MIT

Portable Solar Microgrids are a possible way that communities in India without Electricity can step into the 21^st Century.

That's the conclusion I’ve come to based on the pioneering work of MIT graduate students and Professors who are working to deploy these Portable Solar Microgrids to provide two (2) remote villages in the Jamshedpur region of India with Electricity as reported in the article “Bringing microgrids to rural villages”, published June 1 2015 David L. Chandler, Physorg.  

A Team led by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Electrical Engineering Professors Rajeev Ram and David Perreault along with assistance from MIT PhD Students Wardah Inam and Daniel Strawser were doing field testing at these two (2) remote villages in the Jamshedpur region of India.

After making sure their systems work, they then went to Seoul, South Korea, where they'll present at the International Conference on Power Electronics. But why India?

India the Telecom Paradise – Rapidly expanding market in need of Alternative Energy Solution

It may have to do with the coming Telecom revolution in the country, as the market is wide open with Samsung, Google, Xiaomi, Microsoft and others in a jostle to get a slice of their expanding market as noted in my blog article entitled “US$90 Samsung Z1 Launches in India - Xiaomi Redmi and Google Android One competition with Tizen OS and Samsung Galaxy S5 stylings”.

India's a population is among 1.3 billion estimated worldwide to be without regular electricity. In this country, electricity is a luxury that few can afford on a regular basis. Even when they do have access, the supply is irregular, averaging two (2) or three (3) hours a day.

Alternative Power from Solar, is not just a means of getting off the grid as in the case of German village of Feldheim whose local town sponsored utility Energiequelle has taken them off the grid as explained in my blog article entitled “Energiequelle gets German Village Feldheim off the Grid - How Wind, Solar and BioGas powered Feldheim shows how Renewables can help Jamaica”.

For many villages in a similar situation like those in the Jamshedpur region of India, Portable Solar Microgrids may potentially be a way for many of these villages to afford to even maintain a Mobile phone such as the US$29 Nokia 215 by Microsoft as described in my blog article entitled “US$29 Nokia 215 by Microsoft - How Microsoft's Nokia Mobile division will conquer India and Developing World Countries”.

It is hoped that installing Portable Solar Microgrids will provide a solution to this lack of a consistent supply of electricity in India. Eventually, it would be great for the MIT team’s project to expand their initiative to Africa, where many are without Electricity.

In fact, I suspect along with smartphone, Telecom Equiptment Providers might also benefit from selling their customer portable Solar chargers in these Developing World Countries!

But how does it work? And can it be made affordable?

MIT’s Portable Solar Microgrids for India – How Jamshedpur Villagers make a living selling Electricity

The Portable Solar Microgrids really consists of three (3) main parts:

1.      Solar panels

2.      PMU (Power Management Unit)

3.      Rechargeable Lead Acid Battery

The heart of the system, the PMU, is really a compact version of the same systems typically used in household Solar panel setups. Usually referred to as a transfer switch in those fixed home Solar power systems, it monitors grid power and converts the Solar panel DC power into AC power while trickle charging the Backup batteries. 

Best of all, it was developed in collaboration with the villagers by the MIT Team. The villagers suggested the main things they wanted to be able to power. This as the aim is not to give the villagers a handout but to empower them with the idea that they can make power and sell it to make a living, to quote PhD Student Wardah Inam, quote: “We want to empower the people to build a grid”.

If the homeowners run the house totally on Solar power, the transfer switch can make the decision to switch to Battery backup when sunlight is low or at night time.

This PMU basically does the same thing, but in a smaller, more portable package.  It operates purely on DC power, which is much safer for villagers with little experience in installing electrics systems to utilize.

The PMU has a maximum Voltage of charging the batteries of 50 VDC but has a built in inverter that converts the voltage output to AC to plug in appliance directly into the PMU. Thus, instead of having to run permanent wiring in your house, you just simply plug your AC device via a very long extension.

The devices you want powered gets its power directly from the PMU, be it a fan, LED light bulb or even a Xiaomi smartphone, which are hugely popular in India as noted in my blog article entitled “Xiaomi in India after success in China - Xiaomi Looks to the West as the World is theirs for the Taking”.

Also, unlike the more expensive home Solar panel systems, it’s not fixed in location, as the Solar panels and Rechargeable Battery can be disconnected, packed up and moved from location to location. This portability makes it easy to use and set up and also makes it affordable for the villages living in the Jamshedpur region of India to either purchase outright or get a loan and pay off.

Because of the great distance to travel to the cities in India, having this in your village can make you a lot of money, as you can charge fellow villagers money to recharge their mobile phones. 

Villagers can also use it to run fans, very important in India where the weather varies from sweltering heat waves to heavy monsoon rains in different times of the year. Villagers can then use the money earned from selling power to expand their Portable Solar Microgrids by adding on more 250 W Solar panels, thereby generating more power.

At that point, they can expand their customer base, selling power to their neighbours, if they are that neighborly.