Techno-enviro-economic feasibility assessment of an off-grid hybrid energy system with/without solar tracker considering pumped hydro storage and battery

Abstract

This research focuses on the design optimization of an off-grid hybrid energy system including photovoltaic (PV) and diesel generator considering energy storage system (ESS). For this aim, the techno-enviro-economic feasibility assessment of PV/diesel, PV/diesel/battery, and PV/diesel/pumped hydro storage (PHS) hybrid energy systems is investigated in a multi-objective framework. Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and total pollutant emission (TPE) are defined as the problem objectives and the design problem is solved for determination of the components size. The impact of PV tracking is also investigated on the system sizing. Over the case study, simulation results reveal that the most cost-effective hybrid energy system is PV/diesel/PHS with fixed panels in which LCOE and TPE are 0.198$/kWh and 208120 kg/year, respectively. Moreover, the most environmentally friendly hybrid energy system is PV/diesel/battery with double-axis tracker in which LCOE and TPE are 0.2816$/kWh and 112760 kg/year, respectively.