Techno-economic feasibility study of solar PV and biomass-based electricity generation for rural household and farm in Botswana

Abstract

Electrification of rural households is of key importance for Africa's economic growth, particularly for developing countries such as Botswana. This paper carries out a techno-economic feasibility study of a solar biomass hybrid system with and without energy storage to supply load demand. The case studies were performed using HOMER software, choosing Phakalane, a village of Botswana as a location. Various scenarios were investigated such as; solar standalone system with and without energy storage, hybrid solar-biomass system with and without energy storage as well as its integration to the grid. It is concluded that a hybrid solar-biomass system with energy storage is the most technically and economically feasible system with various optimized components.