Study - 4

• Market research

It was not convincing for me to pay that much for only 2-3 Hrs of power usage per week. So I took two decisions, the first is that I chose solar energy to rely on for reaching my goal. The second is I changed my goal.

Living in a dream of free power supply forever, without cutoffs within a small money resources is not just a

dream, it's a fantasy. Solar energy cost per kWh has gone down through the past few years, but still not good enough for mid-range people in a third-world country like Egypt.
Prices have gone from 11$ per kWh in 1998 to 4$ per kWh in 2012. That is about 77 EGP at 1998 to 28 EGP per kWh in 2012.
Comparing this to the grid electricity of 19 Pt / kWh, solar energy cost is 147 times that of the grid cost.
If taking into consideration that solar energy provides free power, and needs maintenance of  8000 EGP every 5 years (average battery life), therefore the running cost per month for using solar energy is 8000 / 5 = 1600 EGP per year equals 133 EGP per month. That's double the grid electricity costs. But take into consideration that the fossil fuel energy resources are limited, and electricity costs will not stop increasing. Also the power cutoff problem in Egypt is not anywhere near to be solved. So I think solar energy is not yet ready to be used in a wide scale in Egypt, but in the near future it will be.
Many people say that the investment in a good solar energy system starts paying for itself after 10 years, and I think it is true.

• Who is the target of solar energy systems?

Paying a big sum of money for an investment which will return benefit after 10 years is not for regular citizens in Egypt. A person who decides to use solar power must have a good motive to justify his choice. For people living in Sinai (Eastern Egypt), Alwahat (Western Egypt) and Upper Egypt (Southern Egypt), the grid electricity supply is very difficult to be found in most places, so they live off-grid. They usually use diesel generators to power their houses. Many other places have limited hours of electrical supply per day. Those people are the most who are in need for solar energy, yet they don't usually have the sufficient financial resources. Also persons who have villas, chalets or weekend houses who also power them using diesel generators are in need for solar energy systems.

Note: I'm not mentioning industrial solar energy usage here. For instance, all communications equipment that are far from the grid are either solar or diesel powered. Diesel powered equipment needs a constant refill, but solar needs nothing.

There can be at least three ways to use solar energy:

1. Off-grid: That is when I rely on solar power totally without the need for power from the grid.
2. Grid-tie: That is when I rely on solar power and grid power both.
3. Hybrid: That is when I use the two previous ways together.

I intend in my research to focus on people who have frequent power cutoffs and intend to use the solar system as a UPS only (those people are my case), and not totally rely on it.

I also had to do my calculations to find that I will dedicate a budget of 8,000 EGP for my system. I'm curious what can I achieve from that relatively small sum of money in terms of my requirements.