Economic Analysis of Hybrid Solar-Wind Power System for Application in Heipang Community

Abstract

Economic feasibility is one of the major criteria for selecting energy options for application in any location. One of the main drawbacks of renewable energy technology is its initial cost of investment which results in high energy tariffs making it unaffordable for low-income earners. The cost of renewable energy depends on many factors such as the potential of the renewable resources of the site and government policies on renewable energy technology. This paper aimed to determine the annualized cost of a designed hybrid solar-wind power system for the Heipang community to meet a load demand of 158.3kW and the sensitivity analysis of bank loan interest rate, inflation rate, day of autonomy, depth of battery discharge, and wind turbine rated velocity on the investment payback time. The cost of the components of the designed system was obtained from vendors and a techno-economic analysis was done using MATLAB software. Results show that the annualized cost of the hybrid solar-wind power system is N 52,268,266.97, with battery, solar, and wind power systems taking 85%, 8%, and 7% of the total annualized cost respectively, and Levelized cost of energy N154.53/kWh. The analysis further shows that for N 185.00, N 160.00, and N 127.00 per kWh cost of energy at a 19% inflation rate and 20% bank interest rate, the investment payback times are 8.3, 9.5 and 11.9 years respectively, and 9.8, 11.4 and 14.3 years respectively. Information from this work may help policy-makers and would-be investors make informed decisions on renewable energy technology investment.