Design, Economic, and Environmental Analysis of a Stand-Alone Solar Photovoltaic System for a Tailoring Business in Burundi

Access to affordable and reliable energy in rural parts of Burundi can significantly improve its socio-economic development and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Stand-alone solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are a safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly solution for providing energy to underserved regions. Hence, this paper presents a stand-alone PV system designed to power a tailoring business in a small rural village in Burundi. The system design consists of solar PV arrays, batteries, a charge controller, inverter, and cable connections. The building has an estimated load of 11.99 kWh/day, requiring 22PV modules of 280W capacity, 48 batteries (12V, 100Ah), a 7.6 kW inverter, and a 12A charge controller. The design uses copper wires with cross-sectional areas of 1.13mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and 4.84mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> to install and connect PV panels, batteries, inverter, charge controller, and load. The solar system's estimated life cycle cost is $15,334.39. Furthermore, it offsets or mitigates over 34 tons of CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2e</inf> emissions from diesel generator use. The insights from this paper can guide and encourage the Burundi government and interested stakeholders to adopt PV system designs to address electricity shortage.