IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v13y2009i3p625-633.html

Techno-economic evaluation of off-grid hybrid photovoltaic-diesel-battery power systems for rural electrification in Saudi Arabia--A way forward for sustainable development

Author

Listed:
  • Shaahid, S.M.
  • El-Amin, I.

Abstract

The burning of depleting fossil fuels for power generation has detrimental impact on human life and climate. In view of this, renewable solar energy sources are being increasingly exploited to meet the energy needs. Moreover, solar photovoltaic (PV)-diesel hybrid system technology promises lot of opportunities in remote areas which are far from utility grid and are driven by diesel generators. Integration of PV systems with the diesel plants is being disseminated worldwide to reduce diesel fuel consumption and to minimize atmospheric pollution. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (K.S.A.) being endowed with high intensity of solar radiation, is a prospective candidate for deployment of PV systems. Also, K.S.A. has large number of remote scattered villages. The aim of this study is to analyze solar radiation data of Rafha, K.S.A., to assess the techno-economic feasibility of hybrid PV-diesel-battery power systems to meet the load requirements of a typical remote village Rawdhat Bin Habbas (RBH) with annual electrical energy demand of 15,943Â MWh. Rafha is located near RBH. The monthly average daily global solar radiation ranges from 3.04 to 7.3Â kWh/m2. NREL's HOMER software has been used to perform the techno-economic evaluation. The simulation results indicate that for a hybrid system composed of 2.5Â MWp capacity PV system together with 4.5Â MW diesel system (three 1.5Â MW units) and a battery storage of 1Â h of autonomy (equivalent to 1Â h of average load), the PV penetration is 27%. The cost of generating energy (COE, US$/kWh) from the above hybrid system has been found to be 0.170$/kWh (assuming diesel fuel price of 0.1$/l). The study exhibits that the operational hours of diesel generators decrease with increase in PV capacity. The investigation also examines the effect of PV/battery penetration on COE, operational hours of diesel gensets. Concurrently, emphasis has been placed on: un-met load, excess electricity generation, percentage fuel savings and reduction in carbon emissions (for different scenarios such as: PV-diesel without storage, PV-diesel with storage, as compared to diesel-only situation), COE of different hybrid systems, etc. The decrease in carbon emissions by using the above hybrid system is about 24% as compared to the diesel-only scenario.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaahid, S.M. & El-Amin, I., 2009. "Techno-economic evaluation of off-grid hybrid photovoltaic-diesel-battery power systems for rural electrification in Saudi Arabia--A way forward for sustainable development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 625-633, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:13:y:2009:i:3:p:625-633
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364-0321(07)00169-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:aen:journl:1998v19-02-a04 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Elhadidy, M.A. & Shaahid, S.M., 2000. "Parametric study of hybrid (wind + solar + diesel) power generating systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 129-139.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmed, R. & Sreeram, V. & Mishra, Y. & Arif, M.D., 2020. "A review and evaluation of the state-of-the-art in PV solar power forecasting: Techniques and optimization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    2. Ye, Bin & Yang, Peng & Jiang, Jingjing & Miao, Lixin & Shen, Bo & Li, Ji, 2017. "Feasibility and economic analysis of a renewable energy powered special town in China," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 40-50.
    3. Velo, R. & Osorio, L. & Fernández, M.D. & Rodríguez, M.R., 2014. "An economic analysis of a stand-alone and grid-connected cattle farm," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 883-890.
    4. Wang, Gang & Zhang, Zhen & Lin, Jianqing, 2024. "Multi-energy complementary power systems based on solar energy: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    5. Haidar, Ahmed M.A. & John, Priscilla N. & Shawal, Mohd, 2011. "Optimal configuration assessment of renewable energy in Malaysia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 881-888.
    6. Ma, Tao & Yang, Hongxing & Lu, Lin & Peng, Jinqing, 2014. "Technical feasibility study on a standalone hybrid solar-wind system with pumped hydro storage for a remote island in Hong Kong," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 7-15.
    7. Shaahid, S.M. & Elhadidy, M.A., 2003. "Opportunities for utilization of stand-alone hybrid (photovoltaic + diesel + battery) power systems in hot climates," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1741-1753.
    8. Zuo, Zhaoyang & Basem, Ali & Hussein, Zahraa Abed & Sharma, Kamal & Dixit, Saurav & Alanazi, Yousef Mohammed & El-Shafay, A.S., 2025. "Enhanced near zero-energy building performance through intelligent hydrogen storage management across diverse climates," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    9. Shaahid, S.M. & Elhadidy, M.A., 2008. "Economic analysis of hybrid photovoltaic-diesel-battery power systems for residential loads in hot regions--A step to clean future," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 488-503, February.
    10. Katsaprakakis, Dimitris Al. & Papadakis, Nikos & Kozirakis, George & Minadakis, Yiannis & Christakis, Dimitris & Kondaxakis, Konstantinos, 2009. "Electricity supply on the island of Dia based on renewable energy sources (R.E.S.)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(4), pages 516-527, April.
    11. Salas, V. & Suponthana, W. & Salas, R.A., 2015. "Overview of the off-grid photovoltaic diesel batteries systems with AC loads," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 195-216.
    12. Deshmukh, M.K. & Deshmukh, S.S., 2008. "Modeling of hybrid renewable energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 235-249, January.
    13. Mohammed, Y.S. & Mustafa, M.W. & Bashir, N., 2014. "Hybrid renewable energy systems for off-grid electric power: Review of substantial issues," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 527-539.
    14. Anuja Gagangras & Saeed D. Manshadi & Arash Farokhi Soofi, 2023. "Zero-Carbon AC/DC Microgrid Planning by Leveraging Vehicle-to-Grid Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-34, September.
    15. Celik, A.N., 2006. "A simplified model for estimating yearly wind fraction in hybrid-wind energy systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 105-118.
    16. Ismail, Basel I., 2009. "Design and performance of a transportable hemispherical solar still," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 145-150.
    17. Türkay, Belgin Emre & Telli, Ali Yasin, 2011. "Economic analysis of standalone and grid connected hybrid energy systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1931-1943.
    18. Bernal-Agustín, José L. & Dufo-López, Rodolfo & Rivas-Ascaso, David M., 2006. "Design of isolated hybrid systems minimizing costs and pollutant emissions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(14), pages 2227-2244.
    19. Fazelpour, Farivar & Soltani, Nima & Rosen, Marc A., 2014. "Feasibility of satisfying electrical energy needs with hybrid systems for a medium-size hotel on Kish Island, Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 856-865.
    20. Ren, Guorui & Liu, Jinfu & Wan, Jie & Guo, Yufeng & Yu, Daren, 2017. "Overview of wind power intermittency: Impacts, measurements, and mitigation solutions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 47-65.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:13:y:2009:i:3:p:625-633. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.