Peer to peer solar energy sharing system for rural communities

Off-grid stand-alone solar PV systems have been given much attention for many years as they can provide clean and cheap electrical energy to communities in rural areas, particularly developing countries. However, due to their limited capacities, such PV systems are mainly used for primary and essential loads such as fans, lighting, cell phone charging, etc. In contrast, a considerable amount of excess energy is wasted every day due to insufficient battery storage. Therefore, peer-to-peer (P2P) interconnection between existing solar PV systems brings the opportunity to supply additional loads and make rural communities self-sufficient. Moreover, this innovative approach overcomes some obstacles that current mini/microgrids exhibit and plays a vital role in providing a reliable energy supply in rural areas. This paper investigates the feasibility of P2P solar energy sharing for such systems. In this regard, an IoT-enabled, cost-effective automated solar energy sharing system comprising three functional blocks has been proposed. The feasibility analysis in this paper indicates that the P2P application has increased the self-sufficiency and self-consumption of the community by 13.66% and 11.16%, respectively. As a result, a significant life cycle improvement enables the community by utilizing the proposed energy-sharing system benefits.