Design, simulation, and economic optimization of an off-grid photovoltaic system for rural electrification

Haytham El-Houari; Amine Allouhi; Shafiqur Rehman; Mahmut Sami Buker; Tarik Kousksou; Abdelmajid Jamil; Bouchta El Amrani

doi:10.3390/en12244735

Design, simulation, and economic optimization of an off-grid photovoltaic system for rural electrification

Haytham El-Houari^*, Amine Allouhi, Shafiqur Rehman, Mahmut Sami Buker, Tarik Kousksou, Abdelmajid Jamil, Bouchta El Amrani

^*Corresponding author for this work

Interdisciplinary Research Center for Sustainable Energy Systems

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

54 Scopus citations

Abstract

Access to clean and affordable energy in rural African regions can contribute greatly to social development. Hence, this article proposes the design, simulation, and optimization of a stand-alone photovoltaic system (SAPV) to provide non-polluting electrical energy based on a renewable source for a rural house located in Tazouta, Morocco. Real monthly electrical demands and hourly climatic conditions were utilized. An initial design process indicated that, with a 1080 W_p total capacity of PV modules and 670 Ah of battery storage, the proposed SAPV system was able to meet a considerable part of the dwelling load with an average solar fraction of about 79.1%. The rest of the energy demand was ensured by a diesel generator (DG). Also, a life cycle analysis of the PV system revealed that the life cycle cost is 10,195.56 USD and the unit electricity cost is 0.57 USD/kWh for an initial investment of 4858.68 USD. Thereafter, an optimum design based on Homer Pro software was carried out indicating that lower PV capacity can decrease the unit energy cost to 0.356 USD/kWh while reducing the solar fraction to 54.9%.

Original language	English
Article number	4735
Journal	Energies
Volume	12
Issue number	24
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/en12244735
State	Published - 12 Dec 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.

Keywords

Design
Life cycle cost analysis
Morocco
Off-grid
Optimization
Photovoltaic
Simulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Fuel Technology
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Energy (miscellaneous)
Control and Optimization
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.3390/en12244735

Cite this

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title = "Design, simulation, and economic optimization of an off-grid photovoltaic system for rural electrification",

abstract = "Access to clean and affordable energy in rural African regions can contribute greatly to social development. Hence, this article proposes the design, simulation, and optimization of a stand-alone photovoltaic system (SAPV) to provide non-polluting electrical energy based on a renewable source for a rural house located in Tazouta, Morocco. Real monthly electrical demands and hourly climatic conditions were utilized. An initial design process indicated that, with a 1080 Wp total capacity of PV modules and 670 Ah of battery storage, the proposed SAPV system was able to meet a considerable part of the dwelling load with an average solar fraction of about 79.1\%. The rest of the energy demand was ensured by a diesel generator (DG). Also, a life cycle analysis of the PV system revealed that the life cycle cost is 10,195.56 USD and the unit electricity cost is 0.57 USD/kWh for an initial investment of 4858.68 USD. Thereafter, an optimum design based on Homer Pro software was carried out indicating that lower PV capacity can decrease the unit energy cost to 0.356 USD/kWh while reducing the solar fraction to 54.9\%.",

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author = "Haytham El-Houari and Amine Allouhi and Shafiqur Rehman and Buker, \{Mahmut Sami\} and Tarik Kousksou and Abdelmajid Jamil and \{El Amrani\}, Bouchta",

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AU - El-Houari, Haytham

AU - Allouhi, Amine

AU - Rehman, Shafiqur

AU - Buker, Mahmut Sami

AU - Kousksou, Tarik

AU - Jamil, Abdelmajid

AU - El Amrani, Bouchta

PY - 2019/12/12

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N2 - Access to clean and affordable energy in rural African regions can contribute greatly to social development. Hence, this article proposes the design, simulation, and optimization of a stand-alone photovoltaic system (SAPV) to provide non-polluting electrical energy based on a renewable source for a rural house located in Tazouta, Morocco. Real monthly electrical demands and hourly climatic conditions were utilized. An initial design process indicated that, with a 1080 Wp total capacity of PV modules and 670 Ah of battery storage, the proposed SAPV system was able to meet a considerable part of the dwelling load with an average solar fraction of about 79.1%. The rest of the energy demand was ensured by a diesel generator (DG). Also, a life cycle analysis of the PV system revealed that the life cycle cost is 10,195.56 USD and the unit electricity cost is 0.57 USD/kWh for an initial investment of 4858.68 USD. Thereafter, an optimum design based on Homer Pro software was carried out indicating that lower PV capacity can decrease the unit energy cost to 0.356 USD/kWh while reducing the solar fraction to 54.9%.

AB - Access to clean and affordable energy in rural African regions can contribute greatly to social development. Hence, this article proposes the design, simulation, and optimization of a stand-alone photovoltaic system (SAPV) to provide non-polluting electrical energy based on a renewable source for a rural house located in Tazouta, Morocco. Real monthly electrical demands and hourly climatic conditions were utilized. An initial design process indicated that, with a 1080 Wp total capacity of PV modules and 670 Ah of battery storage, the proposed SAPV system was able to meet a considerable part of the dwelling load with an average solar fraction of about 79.1%. The rest of the energy demand was ensured by a diesel generator (DG). Also, a life cycle analysis of the PV system revealed that the life cycle cost is 10,195.56 USD and the unit electricity cost is 0.57 USD/kWh for an initial investment of 4858.68 USD. Thereafter, an optimum design based on Homer Pro software was carried out indicating that lower PV capacity can decrease the unit energy cost to 0.356 USD/kWh while reducing the solar fraction to 54.9%.

KW - Design

KW - Life cycle cost analysis

KW - Morocco

KW - Off-grid

KW - Optimization

KW - Photovoltaic

KW - Simulation

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ER -

Design, simulation, and economic optimization of an off-grid photovoltaic system for rural electrification

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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Cite this