Abstract
The current work was based on four selected underground water production wells (W25, W29, W34 and W47), out of 55 wells available in total, at Disi water project located south of Jordan to power underground water pumping using a stand-alone solar photovoltaic (PV) system for an operation period of 25 years. The economic viability of large stand-alone solar PV system of 13 MW in total had been analysed through life-cycle cost computation compared with other four possible powering options, i.e. genset-powered, grid-networked systems, PV-grid and PV-genset. Individual cost banks were identified and studied based on previous practical experiences. Results of the life cycle costs per kWh in the order from the best to worst alternative is the PV (US$0.136 /kWh), PV/grid (0.140), grid (US$0.144 /kWh), PV-genset (0.185), and genset (US$0.239 /kWh), respectively. This proved that the PV solar system is more cost effective and suitable to use over other conventional types of energy for such large power system. Also, payback period analysis was carried out and showed that the PV system is a good option to be recommended highly compared with the other options. Following, the environmental aspects of using clean PV energy were discussed. The resulting savings in CO2 emission reached 30,000 tons per well throughout the study period, which summed up to about 1.5 million tons of CO2 for all Disi wells. A briefed risk assessment was conducted for the intended project. Risk levels associated to several hazards were identified as well. The work in this paper can be generalized to other cases worldwide under similar conditions.
Highlights
The major conventional sources for powering underground water pumps are either fossil fuel generators or electricity from a nearby grid
Senol (2012), Abu-Aligah (2011), Mahjoubi et al (2010), Odeh et al (2006), Mahmouda and Natherb (2003) and Kolhe et al (2002) all studied the economical aspects of solar photovoltaic (PV) water pumping compared to diesel genset, by using the method of life cycle cost (LCC)
It should be noted here that including the cost of carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction in the final PV Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) will lower the CostPV,kWh even further and eventually gives a great advantage of using renewable energy over conventional types of energy alternatives
Summary
The major conventional sources for powering underground water pumps are either fossil fuel generators or electricity from a nearby grid Both methods have considerably expensive running costs and varying implementation costs depending on the location, nature and budget of the water project. The choice of this concept over conventional means of energy regarding cost over a period of time as well as CO2 emission is gaining more and more popularity around the world, especially where electricity is either unavailable or unreliable. The results indicated that the PV solar water pumping, in terms of cost, is better than the diesel pumping systems
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