Technical and Economic Feasibility of Utility-Scale Solar Energy Conversion Systems in Saudi Arabia

El-batta²,

Env Prog and Sustain Energy

et al. 2022

This work is motivated by the need in overcoming the electricity crisis in Gaza, which is initiated due to political reasons and the spread of COVID‐19. Building quarantine centers is one of the most important means used in combating the COVID‐19, but connecting these centers to the electricity distribution network at the appropriate time is not always possible and increases the burden on the local utility company. This article proposed a hybrid off‐grid energy system (HES) to effectively energize the quarantine COVID‐19 center in Gaza economically and environmentally. To achieve this aim, the estimated load profile of the quarantine center is fed to the HOMER‐Pro program. In addition, the various systems components are introduced to the program, then modeled, and optimized. The developed approach was tested using a real case study considering realistic input data. HOMER‐Pro program is used to simulate and optimize the system design. The results revealed the potential of the HES to provide environment‐friendly, cost‐effective, and affordable electricity for the studied quarantine center, as compared to just the diesel generators system. For the considered case study, it is found that the PV‐wind‐diesel generators HES can cover the connected load with the lowest cost ($ 0.348/kWh) in comparison to other possible HES structures. Taking into consideration the price of harmful emissions, the wining system shows a reduction of 54.89% of the cost of energy (CoE) compared to other systems. For the considered case study, it is found that a combination of 150 kW PV, 200 kW wind, and two diesel generators with capacities of 500 and 250 kW can hold 100% of the electrical load required to keep the quarantine COVID‐19 center in operation. The initial capital cost of this HES is $510,576 where the share of wind energy, solar PV, inverter, and diesel‐electric generators are $320,000, $83,076, $25,000, and $82,500, respectively. The replacemen cost ($55,918) is due to diesel generators. The total operation and maintainance cost (O&M) is $268,737, that is, 25.6% for wind turbines, 1.2% for inverters, and 70.7% for diesel electric generators. The PV/wind/diesel generators HES generate 1,659,038 kWh of electricity. The total energy requirement of 1,442,553 kWh, which means a surplus of 212,553 kWh of energy/year. The total energy (kWh) is an integration of energy sources which are 427,276 (25.8%), 274,500 (16.5%), and 857,263 (57.7%), due to wind, solar and diesel generators respectively. The cost of yearly consumed fuel is $437,828.769. The payback period for the winning system is 1.8 years. Finally, it is proved that the developed approach gives a reasonable solution to the decision‐makers to find a fast, economic and reliable solution to energize the quarantine centers.

where

present the annual capital cost of PV, wind and diesel electric generators systems respectively.

refer to the annual O&M costs of PV, wind and diesel electric generators systems respectively.…”

Section: Proposed Hybrid Energy System Design Options and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

CoE = \frac{[C_{italicPV} + C_{italicwind} + C_{italicDiesel} + \sum_{t = 1}^{n} \frac{O_{PV}}{{(1 + r)}^{t}} + \sum_{t = 1}^{n} \frac{O_{wind}}{{(1 + r)}^{t}} + \sum_{t = 1}^{n} \frac{O_{Diesel}}{{(1 + r)}^{t}} - \sum_{t = 1}^{n} \frac{C_{italicCO 2}}{{(1 + r)}^{t}}]}{([], \sum_{t = 1}^{n} \frac{G_{italicelec}}{{((), 1 goodbreak+ r)}^{t}})}

where

C_{italicPV}, C_{italicwind}, C_{italicDiesel}

present the annual capital cost of PV, wind and diesel electric generators systems respectively.

O_{italicPV}, O_{italicwind}, O_{italicDiesel}

refer to the annual O&M costs of PV, wind and diesel electric generators systems respectively.…”

Section: Proposed Hybrid Energy System Design Options and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Standalone hybrid PV/wind/diesel‐electric generator system for a COVID‐19 quarantine center

El-batta²,

Env Prog and Sustain Energy

et al. 2022

Energy Exploration & Exploitation

“…It has been demonstrated that the suggested system, which has a 1-ton capacity, uses 34.6% less energy than a conventional vapor compression unit. Regarding the technological and financial viability of utility-scale solar power facilities at 10 locations in KSA, Hafez et al (2020) offered a comparison between PV and concentrated solar power (CSP) types. The authors concluded that the lowest LCOE for PV systems and CSP with a parabolic trough, for instance, are favored candidates in the Saudi market; the lowest cost of electricity was determined to be 0.06$US/kWh.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilizing solar photovoltaic systems in educational facilities to achieve a zero bill campus: The Sulaiman Al-Rajhi University case

Alfaoyzan

Almasri

2023

One of the primary things damaging the environment is the use of energy. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), electricity is the main source of energy in educational buildings. To conserve the environment, significant efforts are now being made to reduce energy use in general and electricity use in particular. To be sustainable, it is also vital to research the possibilities of employing solar energy in the higher education sector since it is also accessible in the KSA. The main motives behind this study are the low prices of photovoltaic (PV) solar systems globally and the existence of a new government system to benefit from solar energy in the KSA. The utilization of PV solar energy at Sulaiman Al-Rajhi University in the Qassim region was examined in this article. Two scenarios were considered: scenario 1, in which the entire roof of the buildings is covered by a PV system, and scenario 2, for securing electricity so that it is a nearly zero-bill campus (nZBC). The yield factors calculated for scenarios 1 and 2 are 1896 and 1922 kWh/kWp, respectively, while the capacity factor is 21.6% for scenario 1 and 21.9% for scenario 2. For scenarios 1 and 2, the systems produce 2,160,181 and 10,199,253 kWh of electrical energy annually, respectively. The production in the second scenario is about 113% of the load to reach an nZBC, compared to the first scenario's coverage of about 24% of the load. The levelized cost of energy was found to be between 0.026 and 0.028 $/kWh, with a simple payback period of 10 years for scenario 1 and 8.1 years for scenario 2. Additionally, the proposed systems’ environmental benefits were noted.

World J. Adv. Res. Rev.

“…The production of solar heating systems worldwide has been increasing in recent years, while production costs have been decreasing and are set to decrease further due to new manufacturing technologies and production scale factors. On the other hand, the cost of conventional energy derived from the fossil fuel sources is pressed to go up, due to the increasing penalty for environment pollution and due to the decrease of the availability of fossil fuel reserves [6,7]. In terms of solar collector, solar water heating flat-plate collectors represent 1,570 projects yield around 776 MW, 93 projects using concentrating solar power CSP yield 103 MW and 104 projects using vacuum tube solar collectors yield 54 MWth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass flow rate optimization in solar heating systems based on a flat-plate solar collector: A case study

Alsadi¹,

Foqha²

2021

Little works considered the optimization of working fluids in solar systems. Engineers, designers and scientists are interested with the optimization problems, furthermore it is very important specially, for solar systems to improve the energetic behavior and increase their efficiencies as a conversion system of solar irradiance to a useful thermal power. According to the available literature, the criteria of optimization mainly relates to energetic and economic analysis (one of them or both). The analysis was based upon the maximum useful energy obtained from solar collector. Accordingly, the optimum mass flow rate was found aspires to infinity. The second analysis is based upon minimum cost of the unit of useful energy [$/W]. The optimum mass flow rate of solar air-heating flat-plate collector for the considered domestic solar heating system has been found 29 kg/h per square meters of solar collectors. This paper deals with a third criteria that is, the amount of the additional energy required to achieve the required task from the solar system by means of auxiliary heating system. In where both the outlet temperature and mass flow rate play crucial role in the heat exchange between the fluid in the collector loop and the fluid in the load loop.