Sensitivity analysis of using solar cells in regional electricity power supply of off-grid power systems in Iran

Abstract

Purpose Rural areas are one of the effective regions in economy and self-sufficiency field especially in agricultural and livestock section. Planning in the rural section and the effort in solving the problems of farmers lead to increase their interest in farming and manufacturing in the villages and decrease their migration to the cities and metropolitans. Therefore, the present study aimed at feasibility of electricity to a rural household in Iran using off-grid solar-based hybrid system. Design/methodology/approach In renewable energy projects, a successful evaluation requires suitable criteria so that one can properly analyze the operational behavior of all feasible scenarios. In the present paper, HOMER software has been used for this purpose for a village with no access to electricity grid (Bar Aftab-e Jalaleh, Iran). Due to drastic fluctuation of fossil fuel prices and varied solar radiations in various years because of climate change, sensitivity analysis has been performed using HOMER. Findings In the optimum status economically, 70% of needed energy is provided by solar cells at the price 0.792 $/kWh. The comparison between the optimum condition economically and the condition that only use fossil fuels revealed that the return on investment will occur after less than 2 years and have remained profitable over 23 years. Social implications The authors hope that the results of this study can be used in planning of the authorities to realize the interests of people in this village. Originality/value According to the surveys, despite Iran being the first country in terms of providing solar power to the villages, so far no socio-economic-environmental assessment has been done for a solar cell-based micro-grid in an off-grid mode for a remote village that is deprived of electricity from a national electricity grid. In addition, for the first time in Iran, the effect of the fuel price and solar radiation parameters variability on the performance of system have been investigated.

Meeting the Hospital Oxygen Demand with a Decentralized Autonomous PV System: Effect of PV Tracking Systems

“…The most notable financial outputs of HOMER are total NPC and LCOE which represent the total Net Present Cost and the average cost of effective power production by the system per kWh. These parameters are calculated as follows (Abdali et al 2019 ; Jahangiri et al 2020b ). where is the total annual cost in $, CRF denotes the capital recovery factor, i shows the real interest rate in percent, R proj is the useful life of the project in years, and E served is the total electric load supplied in kWh/yr.…”

Use of a Hybrid Wind—Solar—Diesel—Battery Energy System to Power Buildings in Remote Areas: A Case Study

“…Using this approach, the electricity consumption of the village was estimated for 20 households. The estimated electricity consumption model for households and service centers, which is based on previous studies in Iran [43][44][45], is shown in Figure 2. According to this model, the average electricity consumption of households and service centers is 5.625 and 22.35 kWh/day, respectively.…”

Comprehensive Investigation of Solar-Based Hydrogen and Electricity Production in Iran

“…For the solar cells used in the present work, the lifetime is 20 years [48], the derating factor is 90% [49], the angle of the solar cells is equal to the latitude of the under study site [50], the orientation of the solar cells is to the south [51], and the ground reflection coefficient is 20% [52]. The cost of buying and replacing solar cells is $ 3200 and $ 3000 per kW, respectively [53].…”