Sizing of off-grid renewable energy systems for drip irrigation in Mediterranean crops

Javier Carroquino, Rodolfo Dufo-López and José L. Bernal-Agustín

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 76, issue C, 566-574

Abstract: In the Mediterranean region, there are many drip irrigation systems with pumps that are powered by diesel generator sets (gensets). Although they could be powered by renewable energy produced on-site, technical and economic factors make that difficult. Moreover, the seasonal nature of demand requires an oversizing of energy generation and/or storage, increasing system costs. In this paper, we sought renewable energy systems that were economically optimal. We focused on six farming facility case studies to find the optimal energy generation solution using a simulation and optimization tool based on genetic algorithms. Photovoltaic-diesel hybrids and diesel systems were found to be optimal, with energy costs from 0.13 to 1.08 €/kWh and from 0.32 to 0.52 €/kWh, respectively. The strong effect of demand management was an interesting finding, as it may indicate significant system size and cost reductions. In addition, the optimum photovoltaic fixed tilt angles depended not only on the seasonal profile of the demand, but also on the pumping schedule. Although the difference between market interest rates and the rise of fuel prices strongly influences the advantage of incorporating, or not, renewable generation, this study supports that hybrid photovoltaic-diesel systems can make profitable use of renewable energy in drip irrigation.

Keywords: Hybrid renewable energy systems; Off-grid; Feasibility; Irrigation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148114008003
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:76:y:2015:i:c:p:566-574

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.11.069

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().