Economic evaluation of a renewable energy system for rural electrification in Morocco- A case study

摘要

Elkaria is a remote rural village located in the middle of Morocco which enjoys an average daily solar irradiation of 6kW/m~2/day. This potential was exploited to supply the village with electricity using a standalone PV plant with a peak power of 7.2 kW_p and an 1100 Ah battery bank. The plant feeds the 16 households of the village by electricity using an isolated grid. In this work, the Renewable Fraction (RF) and Cost of Electricity (COE) were evaluated for this plant in two situations: 1) standalone mode with energy storage, and 2) grid-connected mode with no storage. Homer 2.81 software was used in this study to economically and environmentally evaluate the feasibility of these configurations. The village load curve was determined from previous measurements while the solar radiation data are obtained from PVGIS Africa and compared with onsite measured values The prices used are the actual costs of the system components. The results show that the second case is more optimal than the first presenting a RF of 0.71, and a COE of 0.103$/kWh against a RF of 1 and COE of 0.523 $/kWh for the first case.