Page - 44 - in Clean Water Using Solar and Wind - Outside the Power Grid

44 Clean Water Using Solar and Wind: Outside the Power Grid The newsletter Energy Post (http://energypost.eu/) is an excellent source of information about the rapidly changing arena of renewable energy. There are several publications on mini-grids for rural areas. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) has published a mini-grid design manual for rural areas (Inversin, 2000). A good guidebook for the connection of mini-grids (or pico-grids) smaller than 200 kW has been published by Greacen et  al. (2013). A comprehensive report from USAID (2014) documents important lessons on rural mini-grids in developing countries. The challenges are a combination of technology, financing and organisation. A valuable record of seven case studies of micro-grids for rural electrification is documented in a UN report, prepared by Schnitzer et  al. (2014). Five electrification cases from India and one each from Malaysia and Haiti are documented in detail. Experiences of mini-grids in rural electrification have been reported for Kenya (Kirubi et  al., 2009), Bangladesh (Yadoo & Cruickshank, 2010) and Nepal (Palit & Chaurey, 2011). It is essential to note that the technical issues are only part of the complete solution. Financing possibilities, high and unexpected expenses and lack of competence and of trust can cause systems to fail, even if the technical aspects are satisfactory (Cust et  al., 2007). Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user