Journals Proceedings

Abstract

The green sources of energy are being encouraged to reduce the environmental pollution, combat the global warming of the planet and burning of depleting fossil fuels. Moreover, solar photovoltaic (PV) – wind – diesel hybrid system technology promises lots of opportunities in remote areas which are far from the utility grid and are driven by diesel generators. The Rajasthan in India being endowed with high intensity of solar radiation and large wind power is a prospective candidate for deployment of hybrid systems. Rajasthan has a large number of remote scattered villages. The aim of this study is to analyze weather data of Rajasthan, India, to assess the techno-economic feasibility of hybrid PV-wind–diesel–battery power systems to meet the load requirements of a typical remote village with annual electrical energy demand of 15,943 MWh. The monthly average daily global solar radiation ranges from 3.5 to 7.8 kWh/m2. NREL’s HOMER software has been used to perform the techno-economic evaluation. The cost of generating energy (COE, Rs/kWh) from the above hybrid system has been found to be 5 Rs/kWh (presuming diesel fuel price of 43 Rs/l). The study exhibits that the operating hours of diesel generators decrease with increase in PV and wind turbine capacity. The investigation also examines the effect of PV/battery penetration on COE, operational hours of diesel generators etc. The decrease in carbon emissions by using the above hybrid system is about 35% as compared to the diesel-only scenario.