Techno-economical assessment of renewable energies integrated with fuel cell for off grid electrification: A case study for developing countries

Abstract

One of the development parameters of each country is the accessibility of its different regions to energy resources, especially electrical energy. Therefore, construction of new power plants is inevitable. Nevertheless, limited fossil fuel energy resources and environmental pollutant emissions further proves the necessity toward renewable energy use. To overcome intermittent nature of renewable energies such as solar and wind, development of hybrid energy systems has been proposed. In this study, the feasibility of wind and solar renewable energies was investigated for Khorramabad city as an example of a city in a developing country using HOMER (hybrid optimization model for electric renewable) software. First, data for wind and solar energies were collected from renewable energy organization of Iran. Second, Geographic Information System (GIS) maps were plotted for solar and wind energies of the country and Lorestan Province where the city of Khorramabad is located. Third for Khorramabad city, the amount of electricity generated by wind, solar, and fuel cell sources were investigated in different months of a year, the contribution of each unit in costs, the amount of costs associated to different power plants, and the amount of pollutant emissions from fuel cell using HOMER. The results indicate that the use of fuel-cell system is not recommended for Khorramabad or similar cities in developing countries due to low performance and high initial costs. On the other hand, using a combined system of wind energy, solar energy, and diesel generator will be economical and is recommended.