A Novel Off-Grid Optimal Hybrid Energy System for Rural Electrification of Tanzania Using a Closed Loop Cooled Solar System

Abstract

A large proportion of the world's populations live in developing countries. Rural areas in many of these countries are isolated geographically from grid connections and they have a very low rate of electrification. The uninterrupted power supply (UPS) in these regions is a considerable challenge. The use of renewable energy resources (RER) in an off-grid hybrid energy system can be a pathway to solving this problem. Tanzania has a very low electrification rate (rural 16.9%, urban 65.3%). This paper discussed, described, designed a novel uninterruptible, and environmental friendly solar-wind hybrid energy system (HES) for remote area of Tanzania having closed loop cooled-solar system (CLC-SS). An optimized configuration for the proposed HES was obtained by Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) analysis software using local solar and wind resources. The designed CLC-SS improved the efficiency of the hybrid solar-wind systems by extracting more power from the solar modules. An evaluation of CLC-SS revealed a 10.23% increase in power output from conventional solar PV modules. The results validate that the optimized system's energy cost (COE) is 0.26 $/kWh and the net present cost (NPC) of the system is $7110.53. The enhanced output solar wind hybrid system, designed in this paper is cost-effective and can be applied easily to other regions of the world with similar climate conditions.

Integrating Solar Photovoltaic Power Source and Biogas Energy-Based System for Increasing Access to Electricity in Rural Areas of Tanzania

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Investigation of the feasibility of microgrid under three operational configurations using whale optimization algorithm

“…Ponsich et al (2022) have developed an optimization model to determine the optimal size of PV/WTs/BES stand-alone hybrid system that used to supply two remote areas. Khan et al (2018) have investigated the feasibility of stand-alone hybrid system includes PV/WTs/BES by using HOMER to optimize the proposed system. Fioriti et al (2022) have developed a making decision framework based on particle swarm optimization to optimize PV/BES stand-alone hybrid system.…”

Experimental Validation of a Numerical Model to Predict the Performance of Solar PV Cells

“…The shrinking of fossil fuel reserves and increasing prices have led to the search for non-pollutant, cheap, environment-friendly, and sustainable energy alternatives for replacement (Neves et al, 2018;Rafindadi et al, 2018;Ren et al, 2018;Rezk et al, 2019). Consequently, more attention by experts was paid on renewable energy sources (RESs) because they are cheaper, environment-friendly, easily accessible, and more importantly sustainable when compared to fossil fuels (Diab et al, 2015;Gomaa et al, 2018;Khan et al, 2018;Tahir et al, 2021). That is why, managements are urged to modify their interests and directions to RESs such as solar energy, wind energy, geothermal heat, hydropower, tidal energy, and biofuels (Ghenai and Janajreh, 2016;Mohamed et al, 2017;Abdelkareem et al, 2018;Abdelkareem et al, 2019;Inayat et al, 2019;Sayed et al, 2019).…”