A novel project sustainability framework is used to evaluate 65 off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) energy system projects in Malawi. This study addresses PV projects serving rural public facilities, a solution known to have had historical issues with poor sustainability. A recent countrywide program targeting such facilities was evaluated against existing projects to determine whether this latest iteration offered better results. Sustainability is defined at the project-level with metrics justified under the main themes of technical, economic, social, and organizational. Data captured for each project is based on a custom survey and interview of key stakeholders. Projects are grouped according to age, project implementer, income level, and PV system size to compare relative results. The sustainability outlook for each project is evaluated. We find sustainability for most projects to be low. Social sustainability was weak with many projects due to low local community stakeholder engagement in terms of numbers of stakeholders, meeting frequency, and community contributions. Organizational challenges included a lack of key management positions in place and extremely limited training provisions. Furthermore, the evaluation highlights the economic health of the system to be key to sustainability, with the “healthiest” projects affording only 37% of expected operations and maintenance costs. Relative to expected demand, systems were found to be undersized for both panels (53% of required) and batteries (57%). Users reported achieving only 60% of their desired consumption. Poor sizing standards related to the lack of load profiles for first-time electricity users as well as poor quality components reduced the overall technical sustainability. Rural public facilities with solar PV in Malawi are not well served by isolated community management. Improved sustainability requires the establishment of a robust financial framework prior to project development that includes formal local government support. This paper discusses ideal management frameworks and their ultimate implications for project developers, policy makers, and the research community.

中文翻译：

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马拉维社区太阳能光伏项目的可持续性评估

一个新颖的项目可持续性框架用于评估马拉维的65个离网太阳能光伏（PV）能源系统项目。这项研究针对的是为农村公共设施服务的光伏项目，该解决方案已知具有历史性且可持续性差。针对现有设施评估了针对此类设施的最新全国计划，以确定此最新迭代是否提供了更好的结果。可持续性是在项目级别定义的，其度量依据是技术，经济，社会和组织的主要主题。每个项目捕获的数据均基于对关键利益相关者的定制调查和访谈。根据年龄，项目实施者，收入水平和光伏系统规模对项目进行分组，以比较相对结果。对每个项目的可持续性前景进行评估。我们发现大多数项目的可持续性都很低。许多项目的社会可持续性均较弱，这是因为在利益相关者数量，会议频率和社区贡献方面当地社区利益相关者参与度较低。组织方面的挑战包括缺乏关键管理职位以及培训条款极为有限。此外，评估还强调了系统的经济健康状况对可持续发展至关重要，“最健康”的项目仅能负担预期运营和维护成本的37％。相对于预期需求，发现面板（占需求的53％）和电池（占57％）的系统尺寸都偏小。用户报告仅实现了其期望消耗量的60％。由于缺乏针对初次用电的用户的负荷曲线以及零件质量差而导致的尺寸标准不佳，降低了整体技术的可持续性。孤立的社区管理无法很好地为马拉维的带有太阳能光伏发电的农村公共设施提供服务。可持续性的提高要求在项目开发之前建立健全的财务框架，其中包括地方政府的正式支持。本文讨论了理想的管理框架及其对项目开发人员，政策制定者和研究社区的最终含义。可持续性的提高要求在项目开发之前建立健全的财务框架，其中包括地方政府的正式支持。本文讨论了理想的管理框架及其对项目开发人员，政策制定者和研究社区的最终含义。可持续性的提高要求在项目开发之前建立健全的财务框架，其中包括地方政府的正式支持。本文讨论了理想的管理框架及其对项目开发人员，政策制定者和研究社区的最终含义。