Feasibility evaluation of a hybrid renewable power generation system for sustainable electricity supply in a Moroccan remote site

Renewable energy sources can constitute an important alternative solution to fulfil the energy requirements of isolated rural areas in the near future. Although power supply to these areas poses a great challenge, off-grid hybrid energy systems exploiting renewable sources might pave way towards more sustainable solution. In this paper, various combinations of standalone Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES) are technically and financially assessed to ensure continuous power supply for 10 houses in a remote village, Tazouta located in the Moroccan Fez-Meknes region. The renewable energy sources considered are solar, wind and biomass. Findings reveal that for an average energy requirement of 91.38 kWh/day and a peak load of 6.44 kW, unit energy cost of the optimum configuration scenario A (PV-Wind-Biomass-Battery) is found to be 0.2 $/kWh and hence, design, development and implementation of the proposed system imply a promising solution for energy supply security. For a 100% renewable energy penetration, the HRES produces electricity according to the following distribution: 11% from wind, 41% from solar and 48% from biomass. From an environmental perspective, the proposed HRES is able to reduce up to 26.48 tons and 28.814 tons of CO₂ equivalent greenhouse-gas emissions annually compared to the grid extension and conventional diesel generator only scenarios, respectively.