Techno-Economic Feasibility Analysis of Grid-Tied PV-Wind Hybrid System to Meet a Typical Household Demand: Case Study - Amman, Jordan

The main purpose of this work is to report an implemented novel methodology to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) managers in better understanding the specific requirements for the implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions and the derived benefits within their firms. The methodology was implemented in a pressurized cylinder manufacturing company as a case study. The cylinder losing, inadequate scrap management, and bottlenecking in body welding were identified as three of the main problems that could be addressed through Industry 4.0. Potential solutions were considered and found suitable solutions for the problems. For example, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tool was proposed to prevent the illegal cross-filling and illegal cylinder swapping problems and it will help for cylinder identification. A rough techno-economic feasibility analysis was also done for the proposed solutions, which will be helpful for SMEs manager to decide regarding when and how to migrate Industry 4.0.

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Techno-Economic Comparative Analysis of Renewable Energy Systems: Case Study in Zimbabwe

Inventions ◽

10.3390/inventions5030027 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 27 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Loiy Al-Ghussain ◽

Remember Samu ◽

Onur Taylan ◽

Murat Fahrioglu

Keyword(s):

Renewable Energy ◽

Hybrid System ◽

Energy Security ◽

Energy Systems ◽

Economic Feasibility ◽

Energy Resources ◽

Renewable Energy Resources ◽

Levelized Cost Of Electricity ◽

Renewable Energy Systems

Fluctuations in fossil fuel prices significantly affect the economies of countries, especially oil-importing countries, hence these countries are thoroughly investigating the increase in the utilization of renewable energy resources as it is abundant and locally available in all the countries despite challenges. Renewable energy systems (RES) such as solar and wind systems offer suitable alternatives for fossil fuels and could ensure the energy security of countries in a feasible way. Zimbabwe is one of the African countries that import a significant portion of its energy needs which endanger the energy security of the country. Several studies in the literature discussed the feasibility of different standalone and hybrid RES either with or without energy storage systems to either maximize the technical feasibility or the economic feasibility; however, none of the studies considered maximizing both feasibilities at the same time. Therefore, we present a techno-economic comparison of standalone wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) in addition to hybrid PV/wind systems based on maximizing the RES fraction with levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) being less than or equal to the local grid tariff where Gwanda, Zimbabwe, is the case study. The methodology suggested in this study could increase the utilization of renewable energy resources feasibly and at the same time increase the energy security of the country by decreasing dependency on imported energy. The results indicate that the PV/wind hybrid system does not only have the best economic benefits represented by the net present value (NPV) and the payback period (PBP), but also the best technical performance; where the maximum feasible size of the hybrid system-2 MW wind and 1 MW PV-has RES fraction of 65.07%, LCOE of 0.1 USD/kWh, PBP of 3.94 years, internal rate of return of 14.04% and NPV of 3.06 × 106 USD. Having similar systems for different cities in Zimbabwe will decrease the energy bill significantly and contribute toward the energy security of the country.

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