Rural electrification in remote areas of developing countries has several challenges which hinder energy access to the population. For instance, the extension of the national grid to provide electricity in these areas is largely not viable. The Kenyan Government has put a target to achieve universal energy access by the year 2020. To realize this objective, the focus of the program is being shifted to establishing off-grid power stations in rural areas. Among rural areas to be electrified is Habaswein, which is a settlement in Kenya’s northeastern region without connection to the national power grid, and where Kenya Power installed a stand-alone hybrid mini-grid. Based on field observations, power generation data analysis, evaluation of the potential energy resources and simulations, this research intends to evaluate the performance of the Habaswein mini-grid and optimize the existing hybrid generation system to enhance its reliability and reduce the operation costs. The result will be a suggestion of how Kenyan rural areas could be sustainably electrified by using renewable energy based off-grid power stations. It will contribute to bridge the current research gap in this area, and it will be a vital tool to researchers, implementers and the policy makers in energy sector.

Solar thermoelectric, even for small sizes, is continuing to garner more attention, by virtue of maturation of small size organic Rankine cycle generators, and of small size absorption chiller even if cost and reliability are still not optimal. Indeed, solar thermal power technology improvement would consent to stimulate an ambit already present in Europe and Italy with a well-known tradition and established leadership and efforts focused on a single solar technology would bring to positive effects concerning controllable electric and thermal energy uses. In this context, the present work tries to summarize the possible cycles and fluids that can be applied in a small solar thermal power plant. Despite a plethora of simulated and experimental cycles and fluids, the simplest cycle using near isentropic fluids seems to be the best choice for a small ORC-based CHP system, even if particular attention has to be done to all the sizing parameters (electricity, heating and cooling demand; area and type of solar collector; flow and temperature of the thermal carrier; flow, temperature and pressure of the working fluid; storage volumes; etc.). Indeed, efficiency and reliability of the reported systems are very different, but, it seems that global efficiency of even more than 10% and global cost of even less than 10,000 €/kW can be obtained even at size of few kW if adequate systems are constructed and managed

The aim of this work was the evaluation of the catalytic steam reforming of a gaseous fuel obtained by steam biomass gasification to convert topping atmosphere residue (TAR) and CH₄ and to produce pure H₂ by means of a CO₂ sorbent. This experimental work deals with the demonstration of the practical feasibility of such concepts, using a real woodgas obtained from fluidized bed steam gasification of hazelnut shells. This study evaluates the use of a commercial Ni catalyst and calcined dolomite (CaO/MgO). The bed material simultaneously acts as reforming catalyst and CO₂ sorbent. The experimental investigations have been carried out in a fixed bed micro-reactor rig using a slipstream from the gasifier to evaluate gas cleaning and upgrading options. The reforming/sorption tests were carried out at 650 °C while regeneration of the sorbent was carried out at 850 °C in a nitrogen environment. Both combinations of catalyst and sorbent are very effective in TAR and CH₄ removal, with conversions near 100%, while the simultaneous CO₂ sorption effectively enhances the water gas shift reaction producing a gas with a hydrogen volume fraction of over 90%. Multicycle tests of reforming/CO₂ capture and regeneration were performed to verify the stability of the catalysts and sorbents to remove TAR and capture CO₂ during the duty cycle.

Hybrid microgrids, integrating renewable energy sources and energy storage, are key in extending energy access in the remote areas of developing countries, in a sustainably way and in providing a good quality of service. Their extensive development faces a financing gap, having a high capital expenditure (CAPEX) also due to high storage costs. In the present work, a case study of a Ugandan microgrid was used to compare various battery technologies employed on their own and in a combination with a flywheel, in terms of their durability and the overall levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of the plant. Simulations show how hybrid storage configurations result in a lower LCOE for the current load profile of the microgrid and even more so for two reference residential and industrial load scenarios, suggesting this would remain the best solution even accounting for future socio-economic development. The resulting LCOE for hybrid storage configurations is lower than the average values reported for microgrid projects and represents a promising solution to speed up the development of such electrification initiatives.

A combined objective-oriented and subjective-oriented method for evaluating accessibility and usability of web pages for students with disability was tested. The objective-oriented approach is devoted to verifying the conformity of interfaces to standard rules stated by national and international organizations responsible for web technology standardization, such as W3C. Conversely, the subjective-oriented approach allows assessing how the final users interact with the artificial system, accessing levels of user satisfaction based on personal factors and environmental barriers. Five kinds of measurements were applied as objective-oriented and subjective-oriented tests. Objective-oriented evaluations were performed on the Help Desk web page for students with disability, included in the website of a large Italian state university. Subjective-oriented tests were administered to 19 students labeled as disabled on the basis of their own declaration at the University enrolment: 13 students were tested by means of the SUMI test and six students by means of the 'Cooperative evaluation'. Objective-oriented and subjective-oriented methods highlighted different and sometimes conflicting results. Both methods have pointed out much more consistency regarding levels of accessibility than of usability. Since usability is largely affected by individual differences in user's own (dis)abilities, subjective-oriented measures underscored the fact that blind students encountered much more web surfing difficulties.