With renewable energy resources progressively becoming popular universally, environmental crisis and global warming are still considerable challenges [1]. The main prevalent environmental crises include pollution, resource evacuation, global warming, and environmental degradation. Environmental cris Contact online >>
With renewable energy resources progressively becoming popular universally, environmental crisis and global warming are still considerable challenges [1]. The main prevalent environmental crises include pollution, resource evacuation, global warming, and environmental degradation. Environmental crises are detrimental effects by man-made activity on the biophysical environment. Environmental devastation imposed by human beings is a universal, continuous difficulty. The human effects on land can be viewed in different ways. The significant one is the temperature elevation and global warming which have been present for 50 years, mostly due to human activities (https://en.wikipedia /wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Iran).
Based upon previous studies, there was a gap to be resolved by this study. Although different economic research has carried out for remote stand-alone hybrid electrification systems with DG, wind, and PV, their authors did not simultaneously and comprehensively perform economic and environmental feasibility study for one single province for stand-alone rural regions especially for northwest of Iran. The principal purpose of the current research is to study 6 stand-alone villages in East Azerbaijan province, Iran to explore the best composition of existing renewable energy systems. The research was performed through HOMER software. Furthermore, net present cost (NPC), cost of energy COE ($/kWh), and initial capital were regarded as the optimization metrics.
Table 1 demonstrates most relevant literature review which performed in the last few years by researchers.
To the best knowledge of the authors, there is no comprehensive novel work on economic and environmental evaluation of PV/Wind/Diesel hybrid system in one single province. On the other hand, this novel research focused on economic and environmental investigation of one single province in order to find the best possible optimization for selected locations. Although various economical investigations have been performed for remote off-grid hybrid electrification systems with PV, Wind, and diesel generators, their authors did not simultaneously and comprehensively evaluate economic and environmental feasibility for one single province for off-grid rural areas especially for northwest of Iran. As some instances, the following studies have been performed over the past few years.
Farivar Fazelpour et al. [20] focused on economic analysis of HE systems in Tehran, Iran, where PV - wind turbine - DG hybrid systems were examined in this research. Hydrogen was applied through DG to warrant a pure fuel is applied, contributing to a minimal environmental impact. Further, battery was employed in the system dependability evaluation. HOMER software was applied for the economic evaluation. The aim was to improve the energy utilization and reduce the dependency on fossil fuels in domestic utilization by demonstrating the technical and economic possibilities correctly. The obtained results showed that amongst five hybrid systems, the most cost effective was the hydrogen-battery system which had a total NPC of US$68,189 and COE of US$0.873/kWh.
Luis Santiago Azuara Grande et al. [21] performed economic and environmental feasibility study of stand -alone PV-BESS for electric vehicles in Spain. For ascertaining the effectuality of the considered scheme, its performance was compared against grid electricity charging, in terms of environmental aspects. The primary objective was to achieve an economic goal for EVs, which assured the system performance, while being viable economically and technically. The results showed that off-grid PV-BESS were economically reliable. In addition, they would allow a remarkable decline in air pollution.
M. Kashif Shahzad et al. [23] concentrated on techno-economic analysis of a stand-alone solar-biomass system for rural regions in Pakistan applying HOMER software. The fundamental objective of this research was to offer optimized configuration for electricity production applying hybrid Photovoltaic-Biomass for an agricultural plantation and a residentiary district placed in a small suburb in Pakistan. In order to handle the load conditions, HOMER was applied to design and carry out economic and technical evaluation applying Biomass-Photovoltaic hybrid system. The results showed that the system is economically feasible based upon the NPC and cost of energy.
Monotosh Das et al. [24] focused on techno-economic analysis of a stand-alone hybrid system applying metaheuristic methods in India. A sensibility investigation based upon loss of load possibility was performed to explore the possibility of the recommended model. The purpose of that research is to gain an economic and technical design of stand-alone hybrid battery-biogas G-PV system with the aid of metaheuristic methods for a radio site in India. The result indicated that both considered metaheuristics were useful in gaining the best design, though water cycle algorithm outperformed the others in design.
A. Can Duman et al. [25] studied the techno-economic feasibility of stand-alone PV-wind-fuel cell system compositions as compared to regular households. In that research, electrical energy usage of stand-alone vacation houses through FC-PV-wind turbine hybrid systems was examined from economic and technical viewpoints. Twenty-four various simulations were presented via HOMER software under different climatic statuses of Izmir, which has nearly high wind and solar energy for Turkey where vacation houses are placed. The results showed that the COE of stand-alone systems was above that of grid electricity but less than previous years.
The number of households with available electricity grid in the East Azerbaijan province has been growing since 2011. In the East Azerbaijan province, there are 513,845 households with accessibility to the electricity grid. Although the remaining (12,846 individuals) does not have access to the electricity grid, over 75% have accessibility to renewable energy resources. Even though many remote rural regions in the East Azerbaijan province do not have access to the electricity, village electrification has developed over the past few years. Hence, applying wind turbines, diesel generators, and PV panels can be a rational solution for satisfying peak electrical demands as an alternative renewable clean energy for remote rural areas of East Azerbaijan province.
The main objective of the present study is to investigate six off-grid villages in East Azerbaijan province, Iran with different locations and diverse climate conditions in order to choose the best compound of existing renewable energy systems for finally providing electricity demands in a reliable and sustainable way for each locality. In addition, the cost of energy (COE) ($/kWh), initial capital, and net present cost (NPC) have been considered as the main optimization metrics.
Geographical position of proposed study areas
The most significant environmental crisis in this province is air pollution. The reasons behind this include contamination industries such as thermal power planets, oil refinery, and promotion of non-renewable energy consumer industries. The primary issue is the Lake Urmia located in the western border with Tabriz. There are three non-renewable energy consumer power plants in this providence including Bonab thermal power plant, Tabriz thermal Power Plant, and Sofian power plant. These power plants are functioning only with fossil sources which are associated with a lower efficiency and remarkable energy wastes plus environmental problems, air pollution, and health challenges.
The techno-economic feasibility of solar-wind hybrid system was studies by applying HOMER software. Although research has concluded that diesel utilization in a hybrid configuration of batteries, PVs, and diesel reduces the necessity of battery and has also a reliable origin, environmental contamination is still a serious issue for batteries.
a, f, daily electrical load profile for selected villages
a, b, monthly average wind speed and solar radiation of selected villages
The prices of major components were found via various producers. Concerning the components available on Iran''s market, especially East Azerbaijan province, major components were selected. Therefore, the top components were chosen by considering the operation & maintenance costs, further expenses, and lifetime.
The PV array brings out direct current from solar energy as attachment of PV parts. In the current research, the PV array was considered as a base load power. The operating yielding power of PV array can be captured by HOMER software. It can be computed by the following equation.
fPV is the derating factor of PV
YPV is the leveled capacity of PV array (KW)
IS is the modulus value of radiation (1 kW/m2)
IT is related to the global solar radiation, happening on the PV array surface (1KW/m2)
Various sizes of PV panels (10,18,27,36,45,54,63,72,81,90,99,100,200,300,400 and 500 kW) are provided in this analysis.
The accurate size of diesel generator has to be considered, principally when the diesel generator and electrical load are connected to the same bus where the peak requested electric power could be obtained [28]. In the current study, a 10KW diesel generator was assumed. The replacement and capital costs of diesel generator were assumed to be $5000/kW and $6000/kW respectively. The operating hours of the generator were considered to be 85,000 h as life time. Based upon assumption, the operation and maintenance (O&M) cost of the generator was considered to be $0.065/h. Note that at the present time, Iran''s diesel price is $0.5/L. Various sizes of diesel generator were studied including (9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90, 99, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 kw).
In this study, wind turbine had a BWC Excel-S description. Furthermore, wind turbine with the abbreviation of XLS has a nominal power of 10 KW AC. Table 4 outlines the technical details of the wind turbine. Because of energy efficiency expediency, wind turbine connected to the AC bus would not be necessary in this electricity transmission process. Figure 4 demonstrates the power curve of wind turbine. Capital cost, replacement, and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of wind turbine were assumed to be $27,378/kW, $24,640/kW, and $273/yrs. Different sizes of wind turbine were analyzed including (9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90, 99, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500).
Power curve of selected wind turbine
Wind turbines, PV panels, and diesel generators were taken into consideration as power suppliers. In this research, NPC, COE, operating cost, and initial capital cost were taken into account as economic indicators. Figure 5 reveals these indicators along with their definition and correlated equation. As can be seen from Fig. 5, NPC is a feasible indicator compared to COE because of its mathematical model. Yearly CO2 emission is considered as major environmental indicator. In case the yearly optimized system is obtained, the environmental indicators such as CO2 emissions are calculated for each single system. Furthermore, yearly power generation for each single component can be easily obtained.
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