Exploration on the feasibility of hybrid renewable energy generation in resource-based areas of China: Case study of a regeneration city

Abstract

In order to explore the feasibility of hybrid renewable energy generation in resource-based areas in China, this paper takes a regeneration city as an example. The technical, economic, and environmental optimization design of the hybrid energy systems for the considered tiny village in Nanyang of Henan province are carried out using HOMER Pro software. The study demonstrates the multi-year and single-year modules of the HOMER Pro software with the advanced storage module. The load following (LF), cyclic charging (CC), and combined dispatch (CD) strategies are adopted in this study. The results indicate that the optimal photovoltaic (PV)-wind turbine (WT)-diesel generator (DG)-battery system under the CD strategy, consisting of 250 kW PV arrays, a WT, a 360 kW DG, 10 battery units, and a 150 kW converter, is the most economically viable with a total net present cost (NPC) of $1,795,558 and cost of energy of $0.378/kWh. The present worth is $5,827,278, which is the difference between the NPC of the DG system and the PV-WT-DG-battery hybrid system. From the perspective of economic and environmental, the PV-WT-battery system is the best among the studied systems. Moreover, the annual CO2 emissions of the optimal PV-WT-DG-battery system as a proposed system is 71,988 kg/year. The optimal PV-WT-DG-battery system reduces CO2 emissions by 89.4% per year compared with DG-only system. The amounts of CO2 emissions emitted from the PV-WT-DG-battery system increase with the number of years, while the renewable fraction values decrease with the number of years.