A Scenario Analysis of Solar Photovoltaic Grid Parity in the Maldives: The Case of Malahini Resort

Abstract

The Maldives, one of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with great solar potential, is keen to promote renewable energy systems to reduce its heavy reliance on imported diesel for power generation. However, adopting renewable energy systems is still burdensome for the Maldives not only because of its high initial costs and insufficient financial resources but also because of a lack of understanding about whether the deployment of a renewable system is economically feasible. Therefore, the concept of grid parity is explored as an important concept in this paper to examine the possible timeframe for reaching it. A distinctive feature of the paper is that the paper used actual cost and technical information to analyze the levelized cost of energy (LCOEs) of the independent renewable system in a remote island and examined its timeframe for reaching the grid parity condition. Based on economic and technical information from a project for replacing existing diesel generator to photovoltaic (PV) with energy storage system (ESS) in Kuda Bandos Island in the Maldives, the paper considers three different system configurations and evaluates which configuration could result in the most optimal off-grid energy systems in this remote island. With sensitivity analysis on various uncertainties, the paper shows the range of the levelized costs of energy and the periods required for reaching grid parity for deploying solar photovoltaics and ESSs in Kuda Bandos Island, Maldives. The result indicates that the photovoltaic system is an economically feasible option for the resort, and that grid parity can be reached within the project lifetime. However, the result shows that the use of advanced ESSs is still an expensive option and would not be economically reasonable.

Energy Management and Optimization of a PV/Diesel/Battery Hybrid Energy System Using a Combined Dispatch Strategy

“…When a certain setpoint is selected, the system does not stop charging the battery until it reaches the specified setpoint [20][21][22]. The chosen dispatch strategies are applied only when dispatchable components such as generator and battery are operating simultaneously during a time step [23].HOMER software that was developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States, is considered one of the most powerful tools for the optimization of HESs through performing a techno-economic analysis of the system with a project lifetime of a certain number of years [24]. Different technologies, such as PV, wind turbine, hydrokinetic, hydropower, biomass, conventional generator, battery, flywheel, supercapacitor, and fuel cell, can be addressed with HOMER.…”

“…HOMER software that was developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States, is considered one of the most powerful tools for the optimization of HESs through performing a techno-economic analysis of the system with a project lifetime of a certain number of years [24]. Different technologies, such as PV, wind turbine, hydrokinetic, hydropower, biomass, conventional generator, battery, flywheel, supercapacitor, and fuel cell, can be addressed with HOMER.…”

Selection of a Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for a Low-Income Household

“…Oyedepo et al [11] X X Yahya et al [20] X X X Chowdhury et al [21] X X X Zahboune et al [14] X X Fazelpour et al [15] X X X Yilmaz, and Dincer [16] X X X Al Garnia [12] X X Mandal et al [22] X X X Sen and Bhattacharyya [23] X X X Diemuodeke et al [18] X X X Rezzouk and Mellit [19] X X X Akinbulire et al [2] X X X X Farahi and Fazelpour [24] X X X Goudarzi et al [25] X X X Babatunde et al [3] X X X Diemuodeke et al [26] X X X X Ighravwe et al [27] X X X Akinyele et al [28] X X X X Adaramola et al [29] X X Ajayi et al [30] X X Ali et al [31] X X X Amadou et al [32] X X X Tae et al [33] X X Present study X X X X X X Based on literature search, many case studies concentrate on national [34], regional [35] and rural communities scale [2,11,12,16,18,20,22,23,26,28,36] with only a few research efforts directed at low-income households. Furthermore, the effect of energy efficient practices on the techno-economic and environmental features of HRES have not been comprehensively investigated (see Table 1).…”

The Viability of Providing 24-Hour Electricity Access to Off-Grid Island Communities in the Philippines

“…It is widely recognized that we now have better technologies to support decentralized electricity generation, but there still remains a challenge especially on cost reduction, planning, better integration to local and national development pathways, and other technological barriers-such as system inefficiencies and weak electrical network infrastructure [14][15][16][17]. Several studies have also expressed the need to look beyond the cost of electricity or the optimal design derived from techno-economic analysis of rural electrification projects and consider how to efficiently provide electricity to low-income consumers while also attracting private capitalization [18][19][20]. However, most studies are still geared towards better development of technical parameters that yield the best design options [21][22][23], more often omitting the socio-economic impacts to the consumers.…”