Photovoltaic Potential Analysis - Fuel Cell Hybrid Energy System for General-Purpose Building of Laboratory and Offices Using HOMER Software

Abstract

This paper presents a performance analysis of the potential study in complementing grid utility supply with the renewable energy system. A general-purpose building consisting of an office and laboratory facility has been chosen as a test case with a hybrid system of fuel cell and solar photovoltaic cells installed in addition to the existing grid power supply. HOMER simulation software was used to run the simulations, and the results showed that only the photovoltaic system is more economical to be integrated into the system. Cost-saving from the feed-in-tariff point of view was observed spanning over several years after the initial capital cost was returned.