Technical, economic and environmental assessment and optimization of four hybrid renewable energy models for rural electrification

This work investigates the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of four solar – wind off grid hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) models to provide electrification for Okorobo-Ile town in Andoni Local Government Area of River State, Nigeria using the Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Electric Renewables (HOMER) software. In particular, investigation of the possible inclusion of a fuel cell (FC) system is performed. The four considered models are: pv/wind/battery (PWB); pv/wind/battery/gen-set (PWBG), pv/wind/fuel-cell (PWF) and pv/wind/battery/fuel-cell (PWBF). The best cost-effective configuration among the set of systems were examined for the electricity requirement of 677.75 kWh/day primary load with 99.1 kW peak load. Results obtained showed that the net present cost (NPC) are $615,664.95, $679,348.17, $778,834.22 and $3,534,850.54 respectively for the PWB, PWBG, PWBF and PWF. The cost of energy (COE) was lowest for the PWB with a value of $$0.158 and highest for the PWF with a value of $0.964. The renewable options—PWBF and PWF have higher long-term costs but offer cleaner emissions. In contrast, options with the Diesel-Powered Generator is cost-effective but has a high environmental impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution. These emissions include 3,758 kg/yr CO₂, 23.7 kg/yr CO and a total of 32.67 kg/yr of unburned hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. Based on the results, a stand - alone HRES that consist of 166 kW PV panels, 3 wind turbines 29 batteries and 123 kW converter is found to be the best configuration for the village, as it leads to minimum net present cost (NPC) and COE. The PWB system offers the best choice for the community by balancing financial considerations with sustainability which is crucial when making energy system choices. Results also show that while hydrogen, FC system and the electrolyzer can be used together with or without batteries, inclusion of the FC system resulted in the high NPC due to their high cost of investment.