A hybrid renewable energy system for a North American off-grid community

Md. Mustafizur Rahman, Md. Mohib-Ul-Haque Khan, Mohammad Ahsan Ullah, Xiaolei Zhang and Amit Kumar

Energy, 2016, vol. 97, issue C, 151-160

Abstract: Canada has many isolated communities that are not connected to the electrical grid. Most of these communities meet their electricity demand through stand-alone diesel generators. Diesel generators have economic and environmental concerns that can be minimized by using hybrid renewable energy technologies. This study aims to assess the implementation of a hybrid energy system for an off-grid community in Canada and to propose the best hybrid energy combination to reliably satisfy electricity demand. Seven scenarios were developed: 1) 100% renewable resources, 2) 80% renewable resources, 3) 65% renewable resources, 4) 50% renewable resources, 5) 35% renewable resources, 6) 21% renewable resources, and 7) battery-diesel generators (0% renewable resources). A case study for the remote community of Sandy Lake, Ontario, was conducted. Hybrid systems were chosen to meet the requirements of a 4.4 MWh/day primary load with a 772 kW peak load. Sensitivity analyses were carried out to assess the impact of solar radiation, wind speed, diesel price, CO2 penalty cost, and project interest rate on optimum results. A GHG (greenhouse gas) abatement cost was assessed for each scenario. Considering GHG emission penalty cost, the costs of electricity for the seven scenarios are $1.48/kWh, $0.62/kWh, $0.54/kWh, $0.42/kWh, $0.39/kWh, $0.37/kWh, and $0.36/kWh.

Keywords: Hybrid energy system; HOMER; Off-grid; Renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:97:y:2016:i:c:p:151-160

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.12.105

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