A Review of Off-Grid Plug-and-Play Solar Power Systems: Toward a New "I Better Pass My Neighbour" Generator

Abstract

Power consumption in many countries continues to outpace the power generation capabilities of the main grid. To circumvent this challenge, individual households or even entire communities are going off-grid. The most ubiquitous alternative energy sources are from wind- and solar-generated power. From the consumers point of view, the biggest challenge to taking advantages of these resources is usually with the installation of the off-grid system, thus necessitating a plug-and-play architecture. Furthermore, the ability to seamlessly transition to an off-grid generator when the main power grid goes down remains a critical technical challenge. In this paper, we review existing architectures for off-grid plug-and-play power generators. We also present specifications and system architectures for off-grid plug-and-play solar-powered generators that would be well-suited to African countries.