TY - JOUR
TI - Feasibility study of renewable energy resources and optimization of electrical hybrid energy systems: Case study for Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Iran
AU - Fazelpour Farivar
AU - Soltani Nima
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2017
VL - 21
IS - 1
SP - 335
EP - 351
PT - Article
AB - Renewable energies are increasingly seen as the best solution to a growing  global population demanding affordable access to electricity while reducing  the need for fossil fuels. Country of Iran has vast untapped solar, wind,  geothermal and hydroelectric sources that hold the potential to meet domestic  needs. Renewable energy is also essential to Iran as it will curb massive air  pollution. In this paper economical and feasibility study of various hybrid  systems are performed by using HOMER software model for supplying electricity  to the Engineering Department of Islamic Azad University. For this study,  annual electricity demand of the university is 1,174,935 kWh with a peak  demand of about 331 kW, average wind speeds, based on hourly data during the  period of eleven years (2000-2010), are between 3 to 5 m/s in all months of  the year. For solar radiation, six models are evaluated to select the best  model for estimation of the daily global solar radiation (GSR) on a  horizontal surface in the study location. Among these six models, H/HO=a+b  (S/S0)+ c(S/S0)2 is chosen as the most optimum model for estimating solar  irradiation. The results indicate that among the three hybrid systems for  fulfilling electrical energy needs, the Wind/Diesel/Battery hybrid system  with 9 wind turbines (20 kW), one diesel generator (300 kW), 50 batteries,  and 50 kW power converters with net present cost of $4,281,800 and cost of  energy of 0.285 $/kWh is the most economically efficient hybrid system.  (based on 2015 US dollar).