Techno-economic analysis of stand-alone wind micro-grids, compared with PV and diesel in Africa

About one third of people who lack electricity access worldwide reside in Africa, the most disadvantaged continent with respect to electricity access rates. Many Africans who lack electricity access are living in rural villages. Due to the low population densities of these villages, grid extension is economically unviable. Therefore, distributed generation using off-grid systems is a more favourable option for rural electrification in Africa. This study analyses the economic feasibility of small-scale wind systems for rural electrification in Africa. A spatial mapping model was used to enable the visualisation of the electrification costs of wind systems across the continent. The results of this analysis were integrated with previous work performed for photovoltaic (PV) and diesel systems. This integration produced a map indicating whether PV, diesel or wind systems are the least cost off-grid electrification option across the continent. The results show that PV and diesel systems are the most economically viable method of rural electrification in Africa, while wind systems are economically advantageous only within the horn of Africa and across few dispersed areas. This analysis can be used as a general framework for estimating the potential of off-grid wind systems using spatial mapping. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.