Techno-Economic Analysis of a Microgrid System for Rural Communities in the United States
Access to running water has been a pressing issue in many developing countries across the globe, and also continues to be a problem in some rural areas in the United States. Today, more than two million Americans living in rural areas lack access to basic water supply and infrastructure. Rural communities tend to be located in environmentally fragile areas with poor economic conditions, making access to appropriate, low-cost technology for clean water supply and sanitation more challenging. In addition, many of the water resources located in these areas are being jeopardized by climate change in recent years. This research proposes a photovoltaic (PV)-battery microgrid system for powering water pumps in off-grid areas in an effort to identify economically and technologically feasible solution to the problems. Utilizing the HOMER Pro software, developed by the U.S. NREL (NREL), the case of the Navajo Nation is examined by analyzing the effects of this region's air temperature on the life and performance of battery storage and the economics of the proposed microgrid system.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - Access to running water has been a pressing issue in many developing countries across the globe, and also continues to be a problem in some rural areas in the United States. Today, more than two million Americans living in rural areas lack access to basic water supply and infrastructure. Rural communities tend to be located in environmentally fragile areas with poor economic conditions, making access to appropriate, low-cost technology for clean water supply and sanitation more challenging. In addition, many of the water resources located in these areas are being jeopardized by climate change in recent years. This research proposes a photovoltaic (PV)-battery microgrid system for powering water pumps in off-grid areas in an effort to identify economically and technologically feasible solution to the problems. Utilizing the HOMER Pro software, developed by the U.S. NREL (NREL), the case of the Navajo Nation is examined by analyzing the effects of this region's air temperature on the life and performance of battery storage and the economics of the proposed microgrid system.
AU - Nakhai, Aryana
A2 - Kwasinski, Alexis
A3 - Kerestes, Robert
DB - C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange
DP - Open EI | National Laboratory of the Rockies
DO - 10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173791
KW - Solar
KW - Photovoltaics
KW - PV
KW - Battery energy storage
KW - Diesel generators
KW - Other liquid-fuel generators
KW - Wind energy
KW - Financing
KW - Business models
KW - Case studies
KW - Performance
KW - Local energy resources (LER)
LA - English
DA - 2023/01/01
PY - 2023
PB - NLR
T1 - Techno-Economic Analysis of a Microgrid System for Rural Communities in the United States
UR - https://doi.org/10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173791
ER -
Nakhai, Aryana, et al. Techno-Economic Analysis of a Microgrid System for Rural Communities in the United States. NLR, 1 January, 2023, C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange. https://doi.org/10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173791.
Nakhai, A., Kwasinski, A., & Kerestes, R. (2023). Techno-Economic Analysis of a Microgrid System for Rural Communities in the United States. [Data set]. C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange. NLR. https://doi.org/10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173791
Nakhai, Aryana, Alexis Kwasinski, and Robert Kerestes. Techno-Economic Analysis of a Microgrid System for Rural Communities in the United States. NLR, January, 1, 2023. Distributed by C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange. https://doi.org/10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173791
@misc{CMIX_Dataset_334,
title = {Techno-Economic Analysis of a Microgrid System for Rural Communities in the United States},
author = {Nakhai, Aryana and Kwasinski, Alexis and Kerestes, Robert},
abstractNote = {Access to running water has been a pressing issue in many developing countries across the globe, and also continues to be a problem in some rural areas in the United States. Today, more than two million Americans living in rural areas lack access to basic water supply and infrastructure. Rural communities tend to be located in environmentally fragile areas with poor economic conditions, making access to appropriate, low-cost technology for clean water supply and sanitation more challenging. In addition, many of the water resources located in these areas are being jeopardized by climate change in recent years. This research proposes a photovoltaic (PV)-battery microgrid system for powering water pumps in off-grid areas in an effort to identify economically and technologically feasible solution to the problems. Utilizing the HOMER Pro software, developed by the U.S. NREL (NREL), the case of the Navajo Nation is examined by analyzing the effects of this region's air temperature on the life and performance of battery storage and the economics of the proposed microgrid system.},
url = {https://cmix.openei.org/submissions/334},
year = {2023},
howpublished = {C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange, NLR, https://doi.org/10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173791},
note = {Accessed: 2026-08-06},
doi = {10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173791}
}
https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173791
Details
Data from Jan 1, 2023
Last updated Mar 30, 2026
Submitted Jun 2, 2026
Organization
NLR
Contact
Aryana, Nakhai
Authors
