Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South Africa
A single energy-based technology has been the traditional approach to supplying basic energy needs, but its limitations give rise to other viable options. Renewable off-grid electricity supply is one alternative that has gained attention, especially with areas lacking a grid system. The aim of this...
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doaj-c5799ba256154516afc6ee4d7a45948b2020-11-25T00:51:36ZengMDPI AGEnvironments2076-32982018-05-01555710.3390/environments5050057environments5050057Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South AfricaMiriam Madziga0Abdulla Rahil1Riyadh Mansoor2Faculty of Technology, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UKInstitute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD), De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UKEngineering College, Al-Muthanna University, Samawa, NA, IraqA single energy-based technology has been the traditional approach to supplying basic energy needs, but its limitations give rise to other viable options. Renewable off-grid electricity supply is one alternative that has gained attention, especially with areas lacking a grid system. The aim of this paper is to present an optimal hybrid energy system to meet the electrical demand in a reliable and sustainable manner for an off-grid remote village, Gwakwani, in South Africa. Three off-grid systems have been proposed: (i) Photovoltaic (PV) systems with a diesel generator; (ii) Photovoltaic systems and battery storage; and (iii) Photovoltaic systems with diesel generator and battery storage. For this analysis, different size of photovoltaic panels were tested and the optimal size in each scenario was chosen. These PV sizes were 1, 0.8, 0.6 and 0.4 kW. The optimization between these sizes was built based on three main objectives. These objectives are: (i) energy demand satisfaction; (ii) system cost; and (iii) pollution. For the first and second system scenarios, the optimal size was the 1 kW with battery and 1 kW with diesel generator; the third scenario results did not sufficiently match the three objectives. A general comparison has been carried out between the two optimal systems when the diesel generator is used and when the battery is applied. Both scenarios can sufficiently meet the demand without any considerable interruption, but disparities exist between them in relation to cost and technical optimization. There is a huge difference in the cost between these scenarios. The total cost in PV-Battery system (Scenario 1) represents only 26% of the entire PV system. Also, the PV and Battery system does not release any harmful emissions compared with nearly 6 tCO2/year in the PV with Diesel system (Scenario 2). Also, Scenario (3) is a viable option in terms of energy production but costs more and is proposed to be more beneficial using an economies-of-scale analysis.http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/5/5/57renewable energyoff-gridhybridphotovoltaic with batteryphotovoltaic with dieselGwakwaniSouth Africa |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Miriam Madziga Abdulla Rahil Riyadh Mansoor |
spellingShingle |
Miriam Madziga Abdulla Rahil Riyadh Mansoor Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South Africa Environments renewable energy off-grid hybrid photovoltaic with battery photovoltaic with diesel Gwakwani South Africa |
author_facet |
Miriam Madziga Abdulla Rahil Riyadh Mansoor |
author_sort |
Miriam Madziga |
title |
Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South Africa |
title_short |
Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South Africa |
title_full |
Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South Africa |
title_fullStr |
Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South Africa |
title_full_unstemmed |
Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South Africa |
title_sort |
comparison between three off-grid hybrid systems (solar photovoltaic, diesel generator and battery storage system) for electrification for gwakwani village, south africa |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Environments |
issn |
2076-3298 |
publishDate |
2018-05-01 |
description |
A single energy-based technology has been the traditional approach to supplying basic energy needs, but its limitations give rise to other viable options. Renewable off-grid electricity supply is one alternative that has gained attention, especially with areas lacking a grid system. The aim of this paper is to present an optimal hybrid energy system to meet the electrical demand in a reliable and sustainable manner for an off-grid remote village, Gwakwani, in South Africa. Three off-grid systems have been proposed: (i) Photovoltaic (PV) systems with a diesel generator; (ii) Photovoltaic systems and battery storage; and (iii) Photovoltaic systems with diesel generator and battery storage. For this analysis, different size of photovoltaic panels were tested and the optimal size in each scenario was chosen. These PV sizes were 1, 0.8, 0.6 and 0.4 kW. The optimization between these sizes was built based on three main objectives. These objectives are: (i) energy demand satisfaction; (ii) system cost; and (iii) pollution. For the first and second system scenarios, the optimal size was the 1 kW with battery and 1 kW with diesel generator; the third scenario results did not sufficiently match the three objectives. A general comparison has been carried out between the two optimal systems when the diesel generator is used and when the battery is applied. Both scenarios can sufficiently meet the demand without any considerable interruption, but disparities exist between them in relation to cost and technical optimization. There is a huge difference in the cost between these scenarios. The total cost in PV-Battery system (Scenario 1) represents only 26% of the entire PV system. Also, the PV and Battery system does not release any harmful emissions compared with nearly 6 tCO2/year in the PV with Diesel system (Scenario 2). Also, Scenario (3) is a viable option in terms of energy production but costs more and is proposed to be more beneficial using an economies-of-scale analysis. |
topic |
renewable energy off-grid hybrid photovoltaic with battery photovoltaic with diesel Gwakwani South Africa |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/5/5/57 |
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