Comparative study of stand-alone and hybrid solar energy systems suitable for off-grid rural electrification: A review
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a study on solar energy in the form of a stand-alone and hybrid power generation system used to electrify off-grid locations, which is intended to be used to power a single house or a small community and also functions as a mini-grid, generating power in places where adequate solar radiation is available throughout the year.
Abstract: Global environmental concerns, increasing energy demands and developments in renewable energy technologies present a new possibility to implement renewable energy sources. Solar energy is the most prominent among renewable sources, as it is an inexhaustible resource and its exploitation has thus far been ecologically friendly. The potential amount of solar energy is considerably greater than current worldwide energy demands. Solar energy has been developing more rapidly than the other renewable energy sources for the last few decades. The best way to harvest the sun’s power is photovoltaic (PV) technology. This paper presents a study on solar energy in the form of a stand-alone and hybrid power generation system used to electrify off-grid locations. The stand-alone solar-PV system developed here is intended to be used to power a single house or a small community and it also functions as a mini-grid, generating power in places where adequate solar radiation is available throughout the year. However, many places throughout the world experience unsteady amounts of solar radiation and in those places, a hybrid solar-PV system is the most efficient solution for electrification. The main benefit of the hybrid system is that the weakness of one source is covered by the other source. This paper also presents some comparative case studies, project examples and demonstrations of stand-alone solar and hybrid solar systems implemented at various locations throughout the world over the last twelve years.
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TL;DR: In this article, feasibility of small-scale Hydro/PV/Wind based hybrid electric supply system to the district is studied, and different system types and their component sizes are identified having a cost of energy less than $0.16/kWh.
382 citations
TL;DR: In this article, different solar power technologies have been reviewed which can be utilized for the global sustainable electric power generation, including solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies.
Abstract: Most of the energy generated globally utilize fossil fuels involving the emission of environmentally hazardous carbon dioxide and depletion of fossil fuel resources. The continuous variation in fuel prices has added a major concern on its sustainable use for future energy requirements. In order to minimize the environmental degradation during energy production process due to emissions of hazardous gases, the utilization of renewable energy resources can make the energy use clean as well as sustainable. Due to an ever increasing demand of clean energy, a sharp rise in the utilization of naturally available solar energy has been observed. Currently, there are several possible routes for solar energy technological developments. In order to effectively utilize the solar power system, one needs to know the technology and its suitability according to the requirements and nature of usage. In this article, different solar power technologies have been reviewed which can be utilized for the global sustainable electric power generation. Major emphasize has been on solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies. Their types, mechanism, efficiency and cost factors have been discussed. It has been observed that solar PV being more commercially developed and mature technology is suited for both small and large scale applications while CSP technology despite being expensive yield higher economic returns and is suited for large scale applications. Every solar power technology has its own advantage and disadvantage and their preferred usage is basically dependent on the specific case and given conditions. It has also been observed that solar energy, which is a fairly stable and consistently available source of clean energy has the significant potential to cater ever increasing world electricity requirements.
332 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive review of the research work carried out in planning, configurations, and modeling and optimization techniques of hybrid renewable energy systems for off-grid applications is presented.
Abstract: Hybrid renewable energy (HRE) system based power generation is a cost effective alternative where power grid extensions are expensive. This system utilizes two or more locally available renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, biomass, biogas and small hydro power with or without conventional fossil fuel energy sources to create standalone mode to meet the energy needs in rural remote areas. This study offers a comprehensive review of the research work carried out in planning, configurations, and modeling and optimization techniques of hybrid renewable energy systems for off grid applications. Hybrid renewable system utilities today are more dependent on an optimal design to minimize the cost function. This paper presents a review of various mathematical models proposed by different researchers. These models have been developed based on objective functions, economics and reliability studies involving design parameters. The present study will familiarize the reader with various optimization techniques of system modeling and enable them to compare these models on the basis of their cost functions. Researchers may consider the most suitable model from the various hybrid renewable system models proposed in this study to develop customized designs for optimizing system size while incurring least cost.
297 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a hybrid machine learning technique for solar radiation prediction based on some meteorological data is examined, which is developed by hybridizing the Support Vector Machines (SVMs) with Firefly Algorithm (FFA) to predict the monthly mean horizontal global solar radiation using three meteorological parameters of sunshine duration (n¯), maximum temperature (Tmax), and minimum temperature(Tmin) as inputs.
289 citations
Cites background from "Comparative study of stand-alone an..."
...…hour (h) RBF radial basis function RMSE root-mean-square error R2 coefficient of determination SVM Support Vector Machine T max monthly mean maximum temperature ( C) T min monthly mean minimum temperature ( C) sustainable, but also it is abundant and environmental friendly (Akikur et al., 2013)....
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...It has been proved that the abundant potential of solar energy can play an important role to meet the ever-growing energy demand of the world (Ming et al., 2014; Akikur et al., 2013; Azoumah et al., 2011; Bajpai and Dash, 2012; Hasan et al., 2012)....
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...sustainable, but also it is abundant and environmental friendly (Akikur et al., 2013)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the application of photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and diesel generators in a stand-alone hybrid power generation system for rural electrification in three off-grid villages in Colombia with different climatic characteristics was analyzed.
267 citations
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TL;DR: A review of the current state of the art in computational optimization methods applied to renewable and sustainable energy can be found in this article, which offers a clear vision of the latest research advances in this field.
Abstract: Energy is a vital input for social and economic development. As a result of the generalization of agricultural, industrial and domestic activities the demand for energy has increased remarkably, especially in emergent countries. This has meant rapid grower in the level of greenhouse gas emissions and the increase in fuel prices, which are the main driving forces behind efforts to utilize renewable energy sources more effectively, i.e. energy which comes from natural resources and is also naturally replenished. Despite the obvious advantages of renewable energy, it presents important drawbacks, such as the discontinuity of generation, as most renewable energy resources depend on the climate, which is why their use requires complex design, planning and control optimization methods. Fortunately, the continuous advances in computer hardware and software are allowing researchers to deal with these optimization problems using computational resources, as can be seen in the large number of optimization methods that have been applied to the renewable and sustainable energy field. This paper presents a review of the current state of the art in computational optimization methods applied to renewable and sustainable energy, offering a clear vision of the latest research advances in this field.
1,394 citations
"Comparative study of stand-alone an..." refers background in this paper
...In that sense, this source of energy is more unpredictable compared to solar energy [12,78]....
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TL;DR: In this article, a review about the different solar energy policies implemented on the different countries of the world is discussed and the status of solar energy policy for Malaysia is investigated and compared with that of the successful countries in the world.
Abstract: To overcome the negative impacts on the environment and other problems associated with fossil fuels have forced many countries to inquire into and change to environmental friendly alternatives that are renewable to sustain the increasing energy demand. Solar energy is one of the best renewable energy sources with least negative impacts on the environment. Different countries have formulated solar energy policies to reducing dependence on fossil fuel and increasing domestic energy production by solar energy. This paper discusses a review about the different solar energy policies implemented on the different countries of the world. According to the 2010 BP Statistical Energy Survey, the world cumulative installed solar energy capacity was 22928.9 MW in 2009, a change of 46.9% compared to 2008. Also this paper discussed the existing successful solar energy policies of few selected countries. Based on literatures, it has been found that FIT, RPS and incentives are the most beneficial energy policies implemented by many countries around the world. These policies provide significant motivation and interest for the development and use of renewable energy technologies. Also the status of solar energy policy for Malaysia is investigated and compared with that of the successful countries in the world.
902 citations
"Comparative study of stand-alone an..." refers background in this paper
...Improvement and implementation of solar-PV in leading countries [15]....
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...2 presents the implementation and future expected improvements in solar-PV systems in some leading countries [15]....
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TL;DR: An optimal sizing method was developed to calculate the optimum system configuration that can achieve the customers required loss of power supply probability (LPSP) with a minimum annualized cost of system (ACS).
841 citations
TL;DR: The European Commission have a target to increase small-scale hydropower capacity by 4500MW (50%) by the year 2010 as discussed by the authors, and the UK has 100MW of existing small hydro capacity (under 5MW) operating from approximately 120 sites and at least 400MW of unexploited potential.
Abstract: Hydropower, large and small, remains by far the most important of the “renewables” for electrical power production worldwide, providing 19% of the planet’s electricity. Small-scale hydro is in most cases “run-of-river”, with no dam or water storage, and is one of the most cost-effective and environmentally benign energy technologies to be considered both for rural electrification in less developed countries and further hydro developments in Europe. The European Commission have a target to increase small hydro capacity by 4500MW (50%) by the year 2010. The UK has 100MW of existing small hydro capacity (under 5MW) operating from approximately 120 sites, and at least 400MW of unexploited potential. With positive environmental policies now being backed by favourable tariffs for ‘green’ electricity, the industry believes that small hydro will have a strong resurgence in Europe in the next 10 years, after 20 years of decline. This paper summarises the different small hydro technologies, new innovations being developed, and the barriers to further development.
823 citations
"Comparative study of stand-alone an..." refers background in this paper
...than other renewable sources, the expense depends on the head height, with higher head systems requiring less water flow to generate electricity, thus avoiding the requirement of large and costly machinery [93]....
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...Hydroelectric power currently provides 19% of the world’s power supply [93]....
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...5–25 MW as small hydroelectric, less than 2 MW as mini hydroelectric, less than 500 kW as micro hydroelectric and less than 10 kW as pico hydroelectric power systems [93,94]....
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TL;DR: With the incorporated HSWSO model, the sizing optimization of hybrid solar-wind power generation systems can be achieved technically and economically according to the system reliability requirements.
727 citations
"Comparative study of stand-alone an..." refers background in this paper
...Since the popularity of solar and wind energy systems and their usage began to increase in 1980, researchers have been trying to determine the best solutions and they have presented a wide variety of ways to optimize system costs and reliability [64]....
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...[64], Dufo-López and Bernal-Agustín [65] and Koutroulis et al....
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