Techno-Economic analysis of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for Remote Areas

Abstract

Renewable energy technology has experienced a comprehensive development throughout the world as its presence could be economically and environmentally feasible. Therefore, sustainable energy development is an opportunity to encourage economic growth and preserve the environment using clean, safe, and more affordable energy. Degradation of the environmental resources is among the biggest challenges, whilst the conventional energy sources are the most contributors. Siwa Oasis in Egypt suffers an environmental crisis where its power plant is diesel generator based, which produces more than 26,000 tons of CO₂ per year, as well as the configuration is cost ineffective. These negative issues should be eliminated by utilizing a Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) that achieving techno-economic feasibility and environmental sustainability. This paper will discuss the technical analysis and the economics of the proposed HRES in Siwa Oasis, this could be a helpful guideline for the decision makers to implement an economic feasible and sustainable configuration for remote areas. Through a data collection method, detailed information of the electrical condition in Siwa Oasis are collected. These collected data employed to techno-economically analyze the required system using HOMER Pro. Two main scenarios have been evaluated for Siwa Oasis case, a HRES including the reliable existing diesel generators as a first scenario, while the second scenario is a HRES excluding these existing diesel generators. The optimum results revealed that the HRES including the existing diesel generator approved its cost-effectiveness with a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of o.0881 $/kWh instead of 0.1886 $/kWh for the second scenario.