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Comparing the cost of electricity sourced from a fuel cell-based renewable energy system and the national grid to electrify a rural health centre in India: A case study

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  • Munuswamy, Suresh
  • Nakamura, Keiko
  • Katta, Ajitha

Abstract

The provision of electricity is a key component in the development of a country’s health care facilities. This study was performed to estimate the cost of powering a rural primary health centre, in India with a decentralised renewable energy system. The costs were also compared between a decentralised renewable energy system and providing electricity from a grid source. The critical or break-even distance that makes electricity from a decentralised renewable energy system cost effective over that from a grid source was determined. The decentralised renewable energy system considered was a hydrogen-based fuel cell for the generation of electricity with hydrogen extracted from biogas obtained from biomass. The software program HOMER was used for the simulation analysis. The cost of a decentralised renewable energy system was found to be between seven times and less than half that of conventional energy, and the break-even distance was between 43.8 km to a negative distance for varying ranges of input component costs. The results of this study indicated that the use of a decentralised renewable energy system to power a rural primary health centre is both feasible and cost effective, and may even be cheaper than using electricity from a grid source.

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  • Munuswamy, Suresh & Nakamura, Keiko & Katta, Ajitha, 2011. "Comparing the cost of electricity sourced from a fuel cell-based renewable energy system and the national grid to electrify a rural health centre in India: A case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2978-2983.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:36:y:2011:i:11:p:2978-2983
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.03.041
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