Solar/diesel/battery hybrid power systems have been modelled for the electrification of typical rural households and schools in remote areas of the far north province of Cameroon. The hourly solar radiation received by latitude-titled and south-facing modules was computed from hourly global horizontal solar radiation of Garoua using Hay's anisotropic model. Using the solar radiation computed for latitude-tilted and south-facing modules, the average daytime temperatures for Garoua and parameters of selected solar modules, the monthly energy production of the solar modules was computed. It was found that BP solar modules with rated power in the range 50-180 Wp produced energy in the range 78.5-315.2 kWh/yr. The energy produced by the solar modules was used to model solar/diesel/battery hybrid power systems that could meet the energy demand of typical rural households in the range 70-300 kWh/yr. It was also found that a solar/diesel/battery hybrid power system comprising a 1440 Wp solar array and a 5 kW single-phase generator operating at a load factor of 70%, required only 136 generator h/yr to supply 2585kWh/yr or 7 k Wh/day to a typical secondary school. The renewable energy fraction obtained in all the systems evaluated was in the range 83-100%. These results show that there is a possibility to increase the access rate to electricity in the far north province without recourse to grid extension or more thermal plants in the northern grid or more independent diesel plants supplying power to remote areas of the province. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.