OghenefegorUgbine/SolarDSS-Africa

AI Decision Support System for localising solar cell manufacturing in Africa # SolarDSS-Africa 🌍☀️ ### An AI Decision Support System for Localising Solar Cell Manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa **Solar Innovators Research Fellowship (SIRF) — Cohort 1 · Group 2: Manufacturing Feasibility** Authors: **Oghenefegor Favour Ugbine · Ibrahim Abubakar Adama · Vandi Jusu** Supervisor: **Dr. Nora Baaalla** · In collaboration with **RETTI Energy Group (2026)** --- ## 🚀 Launch the Live Dashboard ### 👉 **Click here to open SolarDSS-Africa** 👈 **solardss-africa.onrender.co… No installation needed — just click the link and use it in your browser. > ⏳ **Please be patient on the first open.** The free host puts the app to sleep after a period of inactivity, so the very first load may take **30–60 seconds** to wake up. After that it is fast. If the page looks blank at first, wait a moment and refresh. --- ## 📌 What is this? **SolarDSS-Africa** is an interactive, AI-powered decision support system that answers two questions a solar manufacturer in Africa actually faces: 1. **Which** solar cell technology should be built first? *(Silicon PERC, TOPCon, HJT, Perovskite Solution/Vacuum, or Perovskite-Silicon Tandem)* 2. **What** would that factory actually cost to build in Nigeria, at a given size and site? It combines two engines inside one dashboard: | Engine | Method | What it gives you | | --- | --- | --- | | **MCDA Engine** | Weighted Sum Model across 6 criteria, with adjustable weights + a 600-run sensitivity sweep | A ranked feasibility score (0–100) for every technology pathway | | **ML CAPEX Estimator** | Gradient Boosting regression trained on a literature-calibrated, bottom-up cost engine | Predicted total CAPEX (USD M), $/W, and a full category cost breakdown | Every number the system uses lives in a **fully cited Excel workbook** (`data/SolarDSS_Africa_Database.xlsx`) — nothing is hidden in code — so any figure can be traced back to its source. --- ## 🖥️ The Dashboard The dashboard is a Dash web app with **9 interactive t …