Temporal Diffusion of PV Microgeneration Systems in a Rural Developing Community

An agent-based model (ABM) is developed in Netlogo as a tool for evaluating the impacts of socio-economic factors on the temporal diffusion of PV-based communal grids in a rural developing community. ABMs model individual entities within a complex system and the rules that govern the interactions of the entities within the system, to capture the overall effect of such interactions. The results show that introduction of a subsidy of $0.15/kWh would result in an increase of 249% in communal grid connections. The results also show that increasing the sensing radius from 1 km to 2 km would result in an increase of 118% in communal grid connections. Introduction of favourable government policies in the form of subsidies, coupled with increasing social acceptance, would therefore lead to increased PV installations and correspondingly to increased communal grid connections.