Technical-Economic and Thermal Analysis of New Combined Renewable Energy Systems for Off-Grid Agriculture: A Numerical Study

Abstract

A large part of the people who do not have access to electric energy are in rural areas, and this lack of access to energy causes the lack of development in these areas and the reduction of public welfare. Therefore, in the present study, a method for providing the electrical energy required in the agricultural sector independently of the grid using a photovoltaic + battery system is discussed from different technical and economic perspectives. For this purpose, the detailed knowledge of the various components of the proposed system and the mathematical relationships that govern it are first discussed. Considering the importance of economic analysis in the design of a system, in this study, a method for checking the life cycle costs of the system components is proposed according to the lifetime of the components, investment costs, maintenance costs and discount rate. Finally, to check the effectiveness of the proposed method, a sample agricultural farm with specific electrical loads was selected in the city of Baghdad-Iraq. In the design of the proposed photovoltaic + battery system, 10 270 watt modules of Yingli model-YL270P-29b with a nominal capacity of 2.7 kW were used to supply the desired electric loads. In addition, a battery with a capacity of 15.66 kilowatt-hours was used to provide electrical loads in non-sunny hours of the day and to improve the performance of the photovoltaic system in sunny hours. The obtained results showed that in a photovoltaic + battery system, the use of a combination of direct current and alternating current loads can bring the most economic savings for the subscriber.