Modeling the Overall Efficiency of a PV + Pumping + Turbine System for the Electrification of a Medium-Sized City in a Mountainous Region of West Africa: Case Study of the City of Mamou in the Republic of Guinea
West Africa faces a major structural energy deficit that hinders its economic and social development. According to the World Bank, the electrification rate in sub-Saharan Africa averages no more than 48%, with considerable disparities between urban areas (over 80%) and rural areas (less than 25%). In Guinea, the situation is particularly worrying: the national electrification rate is around 35%, and falls to less than 10% in rural and peri-urban areas. The interconnected national grid, managed by Electricité de Guinée (EDG), suffers from frequent power outages and limited reliability, with technical and non-technical losses that can reach 40% of the energy produced. Faced with these challenges, decentralized solutions based on renewable energies represent a promising alternative. The abundance of solar resources in the region (5 to 6 kWh/m2/day of global horizontal irradiance) offers considerable potential for the deployment of photovoltaic systems. However, the intermittent nature of solar production necessitates reliable, high-capacity storage systems to ensure a continuous power supply. Electrochemical batteries, while widely used for small-scale installations, have significant limitations in terms of lifespan, cost, and environmental impact when it comes to storing large quantities of energy on the scale of a village or small town. Pumped hydro storage (PHS), also known as a “hydroelectric battery”, is a proven large-scale energy storage solution capable of storing energy as gravitational potential energy. Micro-PHS plants, adapted for small power outputs (from a few tens to a few hundred kilowatts), offer a technically viable and economically competitive alternative for electrifying isolated areas with favorable terrain.
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