Development and assessment of a solar home system to cover cooking and lighting needs in developing regions as a better alternative for existing practices

An estimated 1.2 billion people around the world don't have access to electricity, while many more suffer from supply that is of poor quality. Domestic energy poverty is most severe in the rural areas of South Asia, South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Basic energy needs, such as cooking and lighting, are covered using traditional biomass and fossil fuels. These are consumed inefficiently in fire stoves and flame lamps. This situation hampers economic growth and social development and implies severe stress on resources and the environment. Photovoltaics could play a major role in overcoming domestic energy poverty, especially as most of the affected regions are within the Earth's Sunbelt. This paper provides such a solution in the form of a solar home system with lithium-ion battery in combination with an energy efficient multicooker and LED lamps to cover the needs for cooking and lighting for one family. A solar home system layout is provided and assessed in terms of its cost and benefits in contrast with the existing practices for cooking and lighting in developing regions. Thereby, evolutionary aspects are taken into account to capture the incremental cost advantage of the solar home system technology over time, and with that support the idea of projecting large-scale implementation in developing regions.