Jason Ford

Solar OASIS gives villagers a reliable source of renewable energy

News

An Active Building that generates, stores and releases its own solar power is providing the village of Khuded in rural India with a reliable supply of electricity for the first time.

The new Active Building in Khuded, India, just completed. The integrated solar panels are visible on the roof. A reliable electricity supply means residents can charge batteries for phones and lamps. It also powers a rice husking machine, refrigeration unit and flour mill, which residents identified as essential, as many of them earn their living from agricultural produce
The new Active Building in Khuded, India, just completed. The integrated solar panels are visible on the roof. A reliable electricity supply means residents can charge batteries for phones and lamps. It also powers a rice husking machine, refrigeration unit and flour mill, which residents identified as essential, as many of them earn their living from agricultural produce - SUNRISE, Swansea University

Khuded is connected to the grid, but the electricity supply is unreliable and expensive, forcing many villagers to burn fuels including kerosene and firewood.

The Solar OASIS technology demonstrator – which is equipped with sustainable technologies for lighting and food production - was co-designed by village residents and delivered in partnership with Tata Cleantech Capital.

Arunavo Mukerjee, vice president of advisory services, Tata Cleantech Capital, told The Engineer that the building took four months to construct and commission and cost a total of £100,000.

As well as charging batteries for phones and lamps, the new facility provides electricity to a rice husking machine, refrigeration unit and flour mill.

Features of the Solar OASIS building include a modular ‘Nest-In’ design by Tata Steel, so it could be constructed offsite and assembled on site; a roof made of integrated CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenide) thin film solar panels, made by Newport-based BIPVco; and energy storage in the form of 1000 Ah lead acid storage batteries manufactured by Exide, so that surplus solar power is not wasted. 

The building has been designed by the Swansea University-led SUNRISE network, a Global Challenges Research Fund Project. Active Building design was supported by expertise from the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre, which is also led by Swansea University.

Dr Justin Searle, building energy systems research lead, SPECIFIC, Swansea University explained that 31 five-metre-long solar panels provide a 7.6kWp system.

“Based on solar modelling this will be sufficient to operate the building throughout the year, with the process loads - rice husking etc - moderated as required to maintain the building functions,” said Searle. “Once grid connected the building will be more resilient, being able to utilise a mix of grid and off grid operation as needed; the biggest variation being the actual usage of the process loads versus that modelled.”

Searle continued: “These loads have been metered to provide information on operation times, energy and overall utilisation to inform future projects.”

The SUNRISE team have installed three solar micro-grid interventions for rural communities in India, but the Solar-OASIS Khuded centre is their first full-scale building and it is hoped that it will followed by more in remote, rural settings. 

Solar OASIS Active Building