Abstract
DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF A HYBRID BIOMASS-SOLAR RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEM FOR RURAL DWELLERS IN NIGERIA
Njoku Chiemezuo*, Onojo James O., Chukwuchekwa Nkwachukwu and Okafor Kennedy C.
ABSTRACT
This paper aims at designing a stand-alone hybrid power plant which uses solar and biomass renewable energy systems to produce electricity that can be used to power rural areas in Nigeria. The location selected for the study is Unwana community in Ebonyi state which is in South-East geo-political zone of Nigeria. The location is estimated to have a total of one hundred households, eight shops, one public primary/secondary school, one community hall, one community health center, community water project, street lights and miscellaneous load. The average daily demand for the location is estimated to be 240.1 kWh/day with a peak demand of 41.6 kW. The location has an annual solar irradiance of 4.71kWh/m2/day and a yearly average temperature of 24.91 . The biomass feedstock used for the study is rice husk. A daily average of 1.5 metric tons of rice husk is obtainable in the location. HOMER Pro software was used to design, simulate and optimize for the best hybrid system combination to satisfy the demand of the location given the available resources. The system with the lowest Net Present Cost consist of one 20kW biogas generator, one 10kW biogas generator, 4.6kW PV panels, 31 strings of 12V, 1kWh lead acid battery and 8.65kW converter. 6.3% of the total power is derived from solar and the remaining 93.7% from biomass.
[Full Text Article] [Download Certificate]