Bringing microgrids to rural villages
An estimated 1.3 billion people around the world lack access to electricity, and as a result spend scarce resources on kerosene and other fuels for lighting. Now MIT researchers have developed a system to enable those in rural villages who can afford solar panels to share power with their neighbors, providing both income for the owners and much-needed power for the neighbors. The key to the system, developed over two years of research and numerous trips to India, lies in a simple device the team developed that is smaller than a shoebox. The power management unit (PMU) performs a variety of tasks, regulating how electricity from solar panels or other sources gets directed to immediate uses — such as powering lights and cellphones — or to batteries for later use. At the same time, the PMU monitors how much power is going to each user, providing a record that can be...