Techno-Economic Comparative Analysis of Renewable Energy Systems: Case Study in Zimbabwe

Loiy Al-Ghussain,Onur Taylan,Murat Fahrioglu,Remember Samu

doi:10.3390/inventions5030027

Abstract

Fluctuations in fossil fuel prices significantly affect the economies of countries, especially oil-importing countries, hence these countries are thoroughly investigating the increase in the utilization of renewable energy resources as it is abundant and locally available in all the countries despite challenges. Renewable energy systems (RES) such as solar and wind systems offer suitable alternatives for fossil fuels and could ensure the energy security of countries in a feasible way. Zimbabwe is one of the African countries that import a significant portion of its energy needs which endanger the energy security of the country. Several studies in the literature discussed the feasibility of different standalone and hybrid RES either with or without energy storage systems to either maximize the technical feasibility or the economic feasibility; however, none of the studies considered maximizing both feasibilities at the same time. Therefore, we present a techno-economic comparison of standalone wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) in addition to hybrid PV/wind systems based on maximizing the RES fraction with levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) being less than or equal to the local grid tariff where Gwanda, Zimbabwe, is the case study. The methodology suggested in this study could increase the utilization of renewable energy resources feasibly and at the same time increase the energy security of the country by decreasing dependency on imported energy. The results indicate that the PV/wind hybrid system does not only have the best economic benefits represented by the net present value (NPV) and the payback period (PBP), but also the best technical performance; where the maximum feasible size of the hybrid system-2 MW wind and 1 MW PV-has RES fraction of 65.07%, LCOE of 0.1 USD/kWh, PBP of 3.94 years, internal rate of return of 14.04% and NPV of 3.06 × 106 USD. Having similar systems for different cities in Zimbabwe will decrease the energy bill significantly and contribute toward the energy security of the country.

Highlights

Environmental protection, energy resources conservation, and sustainable energy development are the core challenges that the world is facing nowadays [1] especially in hard times when crises have prevailed [2,3]
The significant drawback of Renewable energy systems (RES) is the intermittency of the energy production from these systems due to the nature of the renewable energy resources which causes a mismatch between the demand and the supply and affects the economics of the RESs
As the case study of this paper, Gwanda has a significant potential of wind and solar energy where the hybridization of these two resources proves that this option is the most suitable to achieve the maximum economic benefits and the maximum technical benefits represented by the RES fraction, Figure 2 shows the increase in the technical feasibility of the renewable energy systems with the increase in the PV and wind capacities

Summary

Introduction

Environmental protection, energy resources conservation, and sustainable energy development are the core challenges that the world is facing nowadays [1] especially in hard times when crises have prevailed [2,3]. Given that the demand for electricity or rather energy is continuously. Inventions 2020, 5, 27 increasing, being able to meet this demand in an environmentally friendly manner is of importance. Adjustments on power systems to expand force and productivity are required [12]. Zimbabwe faces a deficit in its energy production. Around 35% of the energy used in Zimbabwe is imported from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Africa and Mozambique [13]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion