Revolutionizing Oman's energy network with an optimal mixture renewable energy source

Abstract

The electricity demand has increased to 240% during the last decade in the Sultanate of Oman due to population growth and industrial expansion. Solar energy can act as an alternate source of energy production to meet the surge in demand for electric power. Also, the government has planned to derive 30% of the electricity from renewables by 2030. Moreover, agreements have been made to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by decreasing 7% by 2030. The main objective of this paper is to design a grid-connected PV solar system based on the real-time data collected from the location called Nizwa, Oman using Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Electric Renewables (HOMER) software. The real-time data of average high and low temperature, solar radiation, estimated monthly average daily sunshine and peak hours of solar radiation of Nizwa has been collected from Meteorological Office Oman for January to December 2022. Nizwa recorded a temperature max of 43 ℃ during summer and 12 ℃ in January. Daily sun radiation in July averages between 5,500 and 6,000 Wh/m2, and the average sunshine is 9 hours per day at the selected project area (Nizwa). The collected data has been analyzed and designed using HOMER software. HOMER is used to model, optimize and analyze an integrated energy system that primarily utilizes renewable and non-conventional resources for both grid connected and autonomous systems. A 9-kW grid-connected PV solar panel has been designed and implemented in the proposed system. The proposed PV solar system worked perfectly and gave the results of an estimated number of hours of operation to be 4,362 hrs/year; the cost of energy per kilowatt is ＄ 0.044 and the annual energy saving cost of the hybrid system is ＄ 173.696. For the environmental feasibility of producing 14,765 kWh/yr, carbon dioxide emissions have decreased from 7,230,440 g to 4,396.001 g, with a difference of 7,226,043.9 g of carbon dioxide.