Analysis of hybrid energy systems for application in southern Ghana

Due to advances in renewable energy technologies and increase in oil price, hybrid renewable energy systems are becoming increasingly attractive for power generation applications in remote areas. This paper presents an economic analysis of the feasibility of utilizing a hybrid energy system consisting of solar, wind and diesel generators for application in remote areas of southern Ghana using levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and net present cost of the system. The annual daily average solar global radiation at the selected site is 5.4 kW h/m2/day and the annual mean wind speed is 5.11 m/s. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) software was employed to carry out the present study. Both wind data and the actual load data have been used in the simulation model. It was found that a PV array of 80 kW, a 100 kW wind turbine, two generators with combined capacity of 100 kW, a 60 kW converter/inverter and a 60 Surrette 4KS25P battery produced a mix of 791.1 MW h of electricity annually. The cost of electricity for this hybrid system is found to be $0.281/kW h. Sensitivity analysis on the effect of changes in wind speed, solar global radiation and diesel price on the optimal energy was investigated and the impact of solar PV price on the LCOE for a selected hybrid energy system was also presented.