Sizing of Photovoltaic-Wind-Battery Hybrid System for a Mediterranean Island Community Based on Estimated and Measured Meteorological Data

Abstract

Deploying renewable energy systems (RES) to supply electricity faces many challenges related to cost and the variability of the renewable resources. One possible solution to these challenges is to hybridize RES with conventional power systems and include energy storage units. In this study, the feasibility analysis of a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV)-wind-battery hybrid system is presented as a microgrid for a university campus-scale community on a Mediterranean island. Models for PV and wind turbine systems are presented to estimate energy production, and net present cost (NPC) and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) are used as economic metrics. A parametric study is performed with hourly time-steps to determine the sizes of energy generation and storage units to minimize the NPC for a small community as the case study. Two alternate configurations with and without storage are proposed. In both cases, the resulting LCOE is 0.15 USD/kWh while the current electricity tariff for the analyzed location was 0.175 USD/kWh in 2015. This lower unit cost of electricity leads to a lower NPC considering a 25-year lifetime. Different estimated and measured solar irradiance and wind speed data sets are used to evaluate the performance of the designed microgrid. Sensitivity analysis on different available weather data sets shows that the uncertainty in wind resource estimations is much higher than the uncertainty in solar resource estimations. Moreover, the results show that solar and wind resources could be utilized synergistically for the studied location.

Technical feasibility study of the integration of the solar photovoltaic system for a hospital: a case study of Qom City, Iran

“…In this article, the conditions of the roof and the location of the hospital were first studied through satellite photos and field visits. Then the area of the hospital was measured, and the materials used in the hospital were examined and validated, and the main limitations of using PV and installing it on the roof were identified and divided into five main categories [27]:…”

Data-Driven Method to Study the Impact of Utilizing Electric Ground Power Systems on Airport Electricity Demand Profile

“…The PV system model and the PV cell type for this study was adapted from studies by Sadati et al (25,31). The inputs for the PV system model are the characteristics of the PV cell and availability of solar resources.…”

“…The calculated LCOE represents the cost of each unit of electricity that was estimated to be produced by the PV system. The input values for the economic model, including the PV system installation cost, were obtained from (31). The resulting LCOE is compared with the electricity tariff for DSM.…”

Assessment of net energy contribution to buildings by rooftop photovoltaic systems in hot-humid climates

“…The economics of PV systems may vary from case to case due to factors like local weather conditions, building conditions in terms of energy use and roof utilization. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is one of the most commonly used indicator to determine the economic viability of electricity generation technologies (Al Garni et al, 2018;Lai and Mcculloch, 2017;Sadati et al, 2018). LCOE can be calculated using equation 1:…”