Hybrid renewable energy system application for electricity and heat supply of a residential building

Abstract

Renewable and distributed energy systems could provide a solution to the burning issue of reliable and clean supply of energy, having in mind current state and future predictions for population growth and fossil fuel scarcity. Hybrid renewable energy systems are novelty in Serbia and warrant further detailed research. The aim of this paper, is to analyze the application of renewable energy sources for electricity and heat supply of a typical household in Serbia, as well as the cost-effectiveness of the proposed system. The influence of feed-in tariff change on the value of the investment is analyzed. Small, grid-connected hybrid system (for energy supply of a standard household), consisting of geothermal heat pump for heating/cooling, solar photovoltaic panels and small wind turbine for power supply is analyzed as a case study. System analysis was conducted with the help of RETscreen software. Results of techno-economics analysis have shown that investing in geothermal heat pump and photovoltaic panels is cost-effective, while that is not the case with small wind turbine.