Abstract
Combating climate change issues resulting from excessive use of fossil fuels comes with huge initial costs, thereby posing difficult challenges for the least developed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to invest in renewable energy alternatives, especially with rapid industrialization. However, designing renewable energy systems usually hinges on different economic and environmental criteria. This paper used the Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) technique to optimally size ten grid-connected hybrid blocks selected amongst Photo-Voltaic (PV) panels, onshore wind turbines, biomass combustion plant using sugarcane bagasse, Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), and Diesel Generation (DG) system as backup power, to reduce the supply deficit in Sierra Leone. Resource assessment using well-known methods was done for PV, wind, and biomass for proposed plant sites in Kabala District in Northern and Kenema District in Southern Sierra Leone. Long term analysis was done for the ten hybrid blocks projected over 20 years whilst ensuring the following objectives: minimizing the Deficiency of Power Supply Probability (DPSP), Diesel Energy Fraction (DEF), Life Cycle Costs (LCC), and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. Capacity factors of 27.41 % and 31.6 % obtained for PV and wind, respectively, indicate that Kabala district is the most feasible location for PV and wind farm installations. The optimum results obtained are compared across selected blocks for DPSP values of 0–50% to determine the most economical and environmentally friendly alternative that policy makers in Sierra Leone and the region could apply to similar cases.
Highlights
Energy is an essential component in the development of any society
The importance of this research is three folds; it can help policy makers to understand the magnitude of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions obtained from thermal generation in Sierra Leone, though relatively small at the moment; it helps in providing both technical and economic basis for the adoption of suitable renewable energy technologies and the best hybrid options for integration; it helps in establishing a holistic decision making process from resource availability to conversion and its environmental effects
A multi-criteria decision maker for grid-connected renewable energy systems in Sierra Leone was considered as the Sub-Saharan African case
Summary
Energy is an essential component in the development of any society. The understanding of this fundamental principle is deeply embedded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (UNSDG7) [1], which clearly emphasizes universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services, whilst increasing substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030. According to the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative launched in 2012, the target trajectory for Sierra Leone requires increasing electricity access from 15% to 92% by 2030 [4] This would require considerably improving the share of renewable energy technologies to meet the demand in order to minimize the current burden on the government to heavily subsidize the current cost of electricity at a rate of 0.15 US$/kWh for private residents and 0.26 US$/kWh for industry. The importance of this research is three folds; it can help policy makers to understand the magnitude of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions obtained from thermal generation in Sierra Leone, though relatively small (under 0.03% of Global emissions) at the moment; it helps in providing both technical and economic basis for the adoption of suitable renewable energy technologies and the best hybrid options for integration; it helps in establishing a holistic decision making process from resource availability to conversion and its environmental effects
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