Abstract
A technical–economic assessment was carried out in this study to determine the possibilities for wind and solar power generation in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The results showed that most of the province has a solar irradiance of over 400 W/m2, and also showed that wind and solar power generated in the province can be up to twice as cheap as the official price of renewable power in Afghanistan. The most suitable site for solar and hydrogen production was found to be Laškar Gāh, where solar and hydrogen can be produced at a cost of 0.066 $/kWh and 2.1496 $/kg-H2, respectively. In terms of wind power production and hydrogen production from wind, the most suitable site was Sangīn, where wind power and hydrogen could be produced at costs of 0.057 $/kWh and 1.4527 $/kg-H2, respectively. Despite the high potential of wind and solar energy in the Helmand province, the most suitable place in this region to produce hydrogen from wind/solar energy was evaluated from technical, economic, and environmental perspectives with the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method. The Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method was used for weighting criteria and the Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method was used to prioritize locations. The results show that Sangīn is the most suitable place for the construction of a wind hydrogen power plant and Laškar Gāh is the most suitable place for the construction of a solar hydrogen power plant.
Highlights
Energy appears to be playing a crucial role in the economic development of nations.the overutilization of fossil fuel sources to satisfy ever-growing energy demand has created a range of environmental problems—most notably, global warming and climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions
This paper aims to address this gap in the literature by presenting a technical, environmental, and economic feasibility evaluation of the production of power and hydrogen from solar and wind energy in the Helmand province of Afghanistan
The feasibility of solar and wind energy sources in three stations located in this province was investigated; GIS maps of each energy source were prepared and the suitable areas for building wind or solar power plants were determined
Summary
Energy appears to be playing a crucial role in the economic development of nations.the overutilization of fossil fuel sources to satisfy ever-growing energy demand has created a range of environmental problems—most notably, global warming and climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions. Kaygusuz [3] reported that without such energy policies, roughly 1.2 billion people worldwide will not be able to gain access to electricity by 2030. This is an especially important issue in Afghanistan, where energy is in high demand, but there are many infrastructural challenges in meeting this demand. Statistics published by the Afghan government show that only 10–15% of the Afghan population has permanent access to electricity, which is one of the lowest rates in the world [4,5] This rate is much lower in rural areas. Afghanistan is a war-devastated country with grave political and social stability problems, with a population of mostly young people and children, a majority of which live in rural areas
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