Impact of storage technologies, temporal resolution, and PV tracking on stand-alone hybrid renewable energy for an Australian remote area application

Abstract

A hybrid renewable energy system offers a significant cost and environmental benefits over the conventional sources due to the constant reduction in the capital costs and increase in the efficiency of renewable energy generators. The major challenge is to properly size the hybrid system components for supplying a stable and cost-effective power with lower environmental emissions. This study analyses a photovoltaic-PV and wind-based hybrid system using different storage technologies based on the technical and economic indicators while satisfying the load requirements of a remote community in an Australian state, Western Australia. For optimizing the system configurations, the effects of temporal resolutions, different storage technologies, PV tracking systems, and lifetime of the battery are comprehensively investigated in conjunction with a sensitivity analysis. Results indicate that the PV/Wind-based hybrid system with vanadium redox flow battery has a lower cost of energy-COE (0.229$/kWh) and net present cost-NPC ($558,118) than those of the PV/Wind/Li-ion (COE: 0.323$/kWh; NPC: $787,464) and PV/Wind/Zinc-Bromide (COE: 0.270$/kWh; NPC: $658,326) ones, but comparable with the PV/Wind/Lead acid (COE: 0.231$/kWh; NPC: $564,002). However, the PV/Wind with a pump-hydro storage option offers the lowest COE of 0.177$/kWh and the NPC of $431,818..