Avoiding a Graveyard of Solar Panels: How to make Solar Electric Systems Sustainable

The IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board Ad Hoc Committee on SIGHT Best Practices is cooperating with a number of IEEE OUs including IEEE SSIT IST-Africa SIGHT, IEEE Philadelphia Section SIGHT, IEEE Bahrain Section SIGHT, IEEE Karachi SIGHT and IEEE UK and Ireland SSIT Chapter to organise a series of Best Practices Lectures.

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Villanova University, USA presented "Avoiding a Graveyard of Solar Panels: How to make Solar Electric Systems Sustainable" on 17 April 2023 as the second lecture in this series.

Solar electric systems offer the opportunity to provide electricity to communities that do not have access to electricity. However, there are many examples of well-intentioned systems being installed and then not being sustained. This leads to many solar panels not contributing to electricity production in these remote communities. In this talk, we will present strategies based on our experiences in the field to make solar electric systems long term sustainable so that communities can continue to receive the benefits of electricity for the long term.