Energy, Economic, and Environmental Evaluation of a Proposed Solar-Wind Power On-grid System Using HOMER Pro®: A Case Study in Colombia

Abstract

The electrical sector in the Caribbean region of Colombia is currently facing problems that affect its reliability. Many thermo-electric plants are required to fill the gap and ensure energy supply. This paper thus proposes a hybrid renewable energy generation plant that could supply a percentage of the total energy demand and reduce the environmental impact of conventional energy generation. The hybrid plant works with a photovoltaic (PV) system and wind turbine systems, connected in parallel with the grid to supply a renewable fraction of the total energy demand. The investigation was conducted in three steps: the first stage determined locations where the energy system was able to take advantage of renewable sources, the second identified a location that could work more efficiently from an economic perspective, and finally, the third step estimated the number of PV solar panels and wind turbines required to guarantee optimal functioning for this location using, as a main method of calculation, the software HOMER pro® for hybrid optimization with multiple energy resources. The proposed system is expected to not only limit environmental impacts but also decrease total costs of electric grid consumption from thermoelectric plants. The simulations helped identify Puerto Bolivar, Colombia, as the location where the hybrid plant made the best use of non-conventional resources of energy. However, Rancho Grande was found to offer the system more efficiency, while generating a considerable amount of energy at the lowest possible cost. An optimal combination was also obtained—441 PV arrays and 3 wind turbines, resulting in a net present cost (NPC) of $11.8 million and low CO2 production of 244.1 tons per year.

Decarbonisation Using Hybrid Energy Solution: Case Study of Zagazig, Egypt

“…The HOMER software was chosen because of its ability to create a hybrid model for different energy resources such as wind and solar which have been used in previous studies [30,31]. For the simulation, firstly, the load demand was determined which gave the scale at which the hybrid system must operate.…”

Modelling of Consumption Shares for Small Wind Energy Prosumers

“…Increasing self-consumption stabilises load peaks and decreases costs on the electrical energy purchase [14]. Other research studies with a similar objective as this study, but based on solar PV, are described in the references [11,12], while cross-seasonal storage is discussed in others [15,16]. The latter demonstrates the possibility of increasing self-consumption by incorporating space heating demand and using large volumes of water and concrete to store energy.…”

A New Computational Tool for the Development of Advanced Exergy Analysis and LCA on Single Effect LiBr–H2O Solar Absorption Refrigeration System

“…Therefore, thermodynamic simulation for such systems is widely used to determine whether or not physical implementation is feasible [14,15]. Such research can be aimed at full use of renewable energy (which is somewhat similar to the aim of the solar VAR), partial use between renewable and non-renewable energy [16][17][18], or purely non-renewable use where a reduction in use is pursued [19,20].…”