Enabling combined access to electricity and clean cooking with PV-microgrids

Abstract

Electric cooking (or e-cooking) based on renewable sources and highly-efficient cooking devices could represent a sustainable and reliable option to achieve the universal access to clean cooking facilities by 2030. Still, the techno-economic feasibility of e-cooking has never been evaluated through (i) a high-resolution assessment of the electric and cooking load profiles, coupled with (ii) a least-cost energy system optimisation for the related electricity supply. Hence, the present study aims at accurately investigating the techno-economic potential of a fully-renewable solar micro-grid, ensuring an integrated access to electricity and clean cooking, based on two representative case studies in Tanzania, namely: (i) a residential case study, and (ii) a community-service case study. Bottom-up stochastic load profiles are generated for the two contexts by expanding the existing LoadProGen model with a novel complementary algorithm for the computation of high-resolution cooking loads. The cost-optimised results prove the cost-competitiveness of e-cooking, especially for the community-service case, where it would require only an additional 17% capital investment due to the pre-existence of other energy-intensive activities. Moreover, the range of Levelised Cost for Cooking a Meal (LCCM) obtained for e-cooking considering the different scenarios lies within 0.16 ÷ 0.70 USD/kWh, a range that is comparable with that of all other cooking options – including firewood – and even more cost-competitive than LPG.