IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i11p2746-d1664332.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Techno-Economic Analysis and Optimization of the Hybrid System for a Research Campus—Case Study Center for Research, Innovation, and Technology Transfer in Cuenca-Ecuador

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Icaza-Alvarez

    (Department of Electrical, Systems and Automation Engineering, University of León, 24071 León, Spain)

  • David Borge-Diez

    (Department of Electrical, Systems and Automation Engineering, University of León, 24071 León, Spain)

Abstract

Energy development based on renewable energy has gained widespread acceptance in society, especially in recent years. Among the initiatives currently being promoted are those promoted by higher education institutions that utilize available space on their campuses by configuring energy systems to incorporate renewable generation technologies. This study conducts a techno-economic analysis of a hybrid energy system that combines photovoltaic systems, wind turbines, hydrokinetic turbines, batteries, and fuel generators for the Center for Research, Innovation, and Technology Transfer of the Universidad Católica de Cuenca (UCACUE) in southern Ecuador. Using data collected on site, particularly from the CIITT campus meteorological station and recorded on the RESMUCC platform, the size of each renewable system configuration is optimized based on the three proposed energy control algorithms. The designs of the different configurations developed using the Homer Pro tool are then compared in terms of costs and energy generated. The results show that the system, which includes photovoltaic systems, wind turbines, hydrokinetic turbines, and fuel-powered generators, has the lowest cost, at USD 0.33/kWh.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Icaza-Alvarez & David Borge-Diez, 2025. "Techno-Economic Analysis and Optimization of the Hybrid System for a Research Campus—Case Study Center for Research, Innovation, and Technology Transfer in Cuenca-Ecuador," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-30, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:11:p:2746-:d:1664332
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/11/2746/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/11/2746/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saleem, Shaham & Zhang, Yixiang, 2024. "Impact of knowledge and trust on households' solar energy consumption behavior: Do social influence and gender matter?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    2. Lund, P.D., 2010. "Fast market penetration of energy technologies in retrospect with application to clean energy futures," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(11), pages 3575-3583, November.
    3. Abdin, Adam F. & Caunhye, Aakil & Zio, Enrico & Cardin, Michel-Alexandre, 2022. "Optimizing generation expansion planning with operational uncertainty: A multistage adaptive robust approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    4. Bergougui, Brahim & Murshed, Syed Mansoob & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Zambrano-Monserrate, Manuel A. & Samour, Ahmed & Aldawsari, Mohammed Ibrahim, 2025. "Towards secure energy systems: Examining asymmetric impact of energy transition, environmental technology and digitalization on Chinese city-level energy security," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    5. Federico Córdova-González & Eduardo García Meléndez & Montserrat Ferrer Juliá & Daniel Icaza, 2024. "Analysis for the Implementation of Distributed Renewable Energy Generation Systems for Areas of High Vulnerability Due to Hillside Movements: Case Study of Marianza-Cuenca, Ecuador," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-30, March.
    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. Kim, Sunwoo & Choi, Yechan & Park, Joungho & Adams, Derrick & Heo, Seongmin & Lee, Jay H., 2024. "Multi-period, multi-timescale stochastic optimization model for simultaneous capacity investment and energy management decisions for hybrid Micro-Grids with green hydrogen production under uncertainty," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 190(PA).
    2. Zhang, Huaiyuan & Liao, Kai & Yang, Jianwei & Zheng, Shunwei & He, Zhengyou, 2024. "Frequency-constrained expansion planning for wind and photovoltaic power in wind-photovoltaic-hydro-thermal multi-power system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    3. Lebeau, Alexis & Petitet, Marie & Quemin, Simon & Saguan, Marcelo, 2024. "Long-term issues with the Energy-Only Market design in the context of deep decarbonization," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    4. Carlos Vergara & Esteban Gil & Victor Hinojosa, 2024. "Generation and Transmission Expansion Planning Using a Nested Decomposition Algorithm," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Kassi, Diby Francois & Li, Yao, 2025. "Does green financing benefit the development of renewable energy capacities and environmental quality? Evidence from Chinese provinces," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    6. Silva-Rodriguez, Lina & Sanjab, Anibal & Fumagalli, Elena & Gibescu, Madeleine, 2024. "Light robust co-optimization of energy and reserves in the day-ahead electricity market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    7. Benjamin K. Sovacool, 2016. "The history and politics of energy transitions: Comparing contested views and finding common ground," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-81, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Javed, Asif & Shabir, Maria & Rao, Fabeha & Uddin, Muhammad Salah, 2025. "Effect of green technological innovation and financial development on green energy transition in N-11 countries: Evidence from the novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    9. Albino, Vito & Ardito, Lorenzo & Dangelico, Rosa Maria & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio, 2014. "Understanding the development trends of low-carbon energy technologies: A patent analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 836-854.
    10. Robert Olszewski & Piotr Pałka & Agnieszka Wendland & Jacek Kamiński, 2019. "A Multi-Agent Social Gamification Model to Guide Sustainable Urban Photovoltaic Panels Installation Policies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-27, August.
    11. Sawhney, Rapinder & Thakur, Kaveri & Venkatesan, Bharadwaj & Ji, Shuguang & Upreti, Girish & Sanseverino, John, 2014. "Empirical analysis of the solar incentive policy for Tennessee solar value chain," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 368-376.
    12. Li, Miwei & Yang, Bo & Duan, Jinhang & Shu, Hongchun & Wang, Yutong & Yang, Zhaowei & Jiang, Lin & Chen, Yixuan & Sang, Yiyan, 2024. "Exponential slime mould algorithm based spatial arrays optimization of hybrid wind-wave-PV systems for power enhancement," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 373(C).
    13. Benjamin K. Sovacool, 2016. "The history and politics of energy transitions: Comparing contested views and finding common ground," WIDER Working Paper Series 081, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Qiu, Haifeng & Gu, Wei & Liu, Pengxiang & Sun, Qirun & Wu, Zhi & Lu, Xi, 2022. "Application of two-stage robust optimization theory in power system scheduling under uncertainties: A review and perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    15. Sinha, Avik, 2017. "Inequality of renewable energy generation across OECD countries: A note," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 9-14.
    16. Caputo, Cesare & Cardin, Michel-Alexandre & Ge, Pudong & Teng, Fei & Korre, Anna & Antonio del Rio Chanona, Ehecatl, 2023. "Design and planning of flexible mobile Micro-Grids using Deep Reinforcement Learning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    17. Xiong, Houbo & Yan, Mingyu & Guo, Chuangxin & Ding, Yi & Zhou, Yue, 2023. "DP based multi-stage ARO for coordinated scheduling of CSP and wind energy with tractable storage scheme: Tight formulation and solution technique," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    18. Lund, Peter D., 2014. "How fast can businesses in the new energy sector grow? An analysis of critical factors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 33-40.
    19. Zhang, Zhaoyi & Lin, Yifeng & Fan, Jianbin & Han, Zixi & Fan, Youping & Shu, Yinbiao, 2025. "Implicit-integral dynamic optimization based on spatial partitioning and temporal segmentation for the power jumps of renewable energy sources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PA).
    20. Aguilera, Roberto F. & Ripple, Ronald D., 2013. "Modeling primary energy substitution in the Asia Pacific," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 219-224.

    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:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:11:p:2746-:d:1664332. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.