Feasibility Analysis of Standalone PV/Wind/Battery Hybrid Energy System for Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the largest populated countries of the world, where more than one third of the population is living without electricity. Being a developing country, the demand of electricity is increasing tremendously.  Meanwhile, fossil fuel based electricity generation plants are lagging behind to supply the rising demand and the fossil fuel sources are very limited. As an alternative, renewable energy based systems are becoming popular in Bangladesh, particularly solar, wind and hydro based systems, which are being set up in different sizes and configurations. This paper presents feasibility analysis of renewable energy based hybrid system for the village of Kuakata, in the southern area of Bangladesh. The system is designed based on the resources available at the location. The sources considered in the analysis are solar PV, wind, diesel generator and battery backup system. HOMER simulation model has been developed for simulating the system with real weather data and nominal load profile. The cost of the system is determined based on the real market price of the components. Sensitivity analysis has also been carried out on the best suitable system to prove the system sustainability in the future. For sensitivity analysis, the change in load and change in rate of interest has been considered. Based on the factors such as initial cost, replacement cost, operating cost, total net present cost (TNPC), cost of energy (COE) and exhaust gas emission, the results show that PV-Wind-Battery based system is a feasible solution for the situation. The optimum system has the initial cost of 126,586 $, replacement cost of $ 125,280, operating cost of 5007 $/year, TNPC of 224,345 $ and COE of 0.161 $/kWh with no exhaust gas emission. Foremost, the emission is zero, which means it is green energy system.