Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Optimal design and technical analysis of a grid-connected hybrid T

photovoltaic/diesel/biogas under different economic conditions: A case
study
⁎ ⁎
Alibakhsh Kasaeiana, , Parisa Rahdana, Mohammad Amin Vaziri Rada, Wei-Mon Yanb,
a
Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
b
Department of Energy and Refrigerating Air-Conditioning Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Supplying energy to small villages, which are far from the grid or are located in remote areas, due to the high
Hybrid system cost of installing and maintenance of transmission lines, has become a challenge for governments around the
Diesel world. Since many villages, which are already connected to the grid, suffer from frequent blackouts especially
Biomass during peak hours of load demand, using a hybridization of renewable resources with regard to the potential in
Photovoltaic
the region is a suitable solution for having more reliable energy and reducing emissions. This paper investigates
Top-roof
Energy economy
the use of a hybrid photovoltaics, biomass and diesel to meet the energy needs of a grid-connected village,
located in east of Iran. Because of unstable economic conditions and rapid changing of the economic factors in
Iran, several possible rates of inflation and discount rates were considered to find an optimal scenario. Before
identifying an optimal scenario, a comparison was made to determine which way of installing photovoltaic
panels, as centralized plant or top-roof, will be more beneficial in the region. It was concluded that, when the
inflation is 10% and discount rate is equal to 18% (most recent economic condition of Iran), the best scenario
includes 63 kW photovoltaics, 10 kW biogas generator and 10 kW and 15 kW diesel generator, which could
produce energy with 0.193 $/kWh. It was also concluded that with the changes in fuel prices, interest rates, and
inflation rates within the reasonable range of expected economic conditions for the project lifetime, the energy
cost of the optimal system will vary from 0.085 to 0.238 $/kWh.

1. Introduction investment cost of transmission lines and other necessary facilities; it

can also be difficult and lengthy if the area is located in rough terrain.
There are currently about 1.3 billion people in the world who are Electricity transmission and distribution losses also make long power
deprived of access to electricity. Approximately 2.4 billion people are extensions inefficient and harmful to the environment. Therefore, based
also endowed with limited or unreliable energy [1]. Most of these on the region’s resources, the use of renewable energy could be an
people live in rural areas of developing countries and are thus deprived economically attractive option for meeting the electricity demand of
of facilities which would be crucial in both their economic development remote villages [5]. Renewable sources such as solar power, wind
and improvement in their quality of life [2]. The rising demand for power, biomass, etc. are abundant in Iran. There is an average of 300
energy and concerns about the pollution, caused by fossil fuels, have led sunny days each year with DNI reaching 5.5 kWh/m2/day in many
to the use of clean or renewable energies as a solution [3]. Although areas [6]. Legislation passed by the parliament of Iran in 2018 man-
most of the Iranian villages with more than 20 households have gained dates that every electricity consumer has to pay an 8% tax for the ex-
access to the grid in recent years, they still suffer frequent power pansion and maintenance of rural networks and the development of
outages. However, in recent years the government of Iran has begun renewable energies [7].
move towards renewable energies for supplying the electricity of rural Utilization of renewable energy sources could also be beneficial for
areas and has also passed persuasive rules such as guaranteed electricity villages where grid electricity is unreliable due to frequent blackouts,
purchase agreements and high sellback tariffs to motivate investors [4]. especially in peak hours [8]. In addition to improving the reliability of
Power grid extension could be quite expensive due to the high energy supply, residents of poverty-stricken areas could also benefit

⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Kasaeian), [email protected] (W.-M. Yan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.111810
Received 2 May 2019; Received in revised form 7 July 2019; Accepted 9 July 2019
0196-8904/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

Nomenclature R project lifetime (year)

Tc cell temperature (°C)
Cann . total total annualized cost ($) Vgasstorage volume of gas storage (m3 )
Cann, capital total initial cost of components ($) ηDG diesel generator efficiency (%)
Crep replacement cost ($) ηINV inverter efficiency (%)
CRF capital recovery factor (%) BG Biogas Generator
Eserved served energy in a year (kWh) CHP Combined Heat and Power
f annual inflation rate (%) COE Cost Of Energy ($/kWh)
fdPV panel derating factor (%) DG Diesel Generator
fgas gasification ratio(kggas/kgbiomass) DNI Direct Normal Irradiance
FCDgen diesel generator fuel consumption (l/h) GHI Global Horizontal Irradiance
i° nominal interest rate (%) NPC Net Present Cost ($)
i annual real interest rate (%) OC Operation Cost ($)
Pinv . out inverter output power (kW) O&M Operation and Maintenance ($)
PPV PV panel capacity (kW) PV Photovoltaic
YPV rated power of PV panel (kW) Re Renewable
PR rated power of diesel generator (kW)
R comp component lifetime (year)

from clean energy sources economically on account of feed-in tariffs factors such as reliability, maintenance, social acceptability and en-
and job creation [9]. The use of a single renewable energy source such vironmental circumstance also play an important role. Kaundinya et al.
as wind or sun for supplying electricity usually has very low reliability [15] reviewed both grid-connected and stand-alone systems for gen-
as a result of the availability of these sources being somewhat random erating decentralized electricity and analyzed the systems in terms of
and dependent on weather conditions [10]. Therefore using a hybrid of technical design, economic characteristics and environmental factors. It
renewable and non-renewable sources is the common solution for was concluded that independent renewable energy systems have played
overcoming these weaknesses [11]. In addition, heating demands could a significant role in reducing pollutant production and improving the
be met by combined heat and power renewable systems [12]. quality of life in rural areas of developed countries, although the suc-
In order to find an optimal design for a renewable hybrid system, cessful implementation of these systems depends on local policies,
key factors such as available renewable sources, load profile during the charitable contributions, institutional barriers and other social factors.
year and state policies concerning the production and sale of renewable Goel and Sharma [16] compared the efficiency of different renewable
power must be considered [13]. Various researchers have explored the hybrid systems in rural areas. They expressed that the cost of energy
connection between these and other factors with important hybrid hybridization for remote areas may be greater than the cost of grid
power generation system parameters such as efficiency and cost-effec- extension but it is much more affordable when state assistance is
tiveness. The main power generation devices used in hybrid systems are available. They also stated that hybridization of wind and solar energy
wind turbine (WT), photovoltaic panel (PV), diesel generator (DG) and is worthwhile for areas that are more than 50 km away from the elec-
biogas generator (BG) Al-Falahi et al. [14] examined a variety of tricity grid.
component size optimization techniques in WT/PV hybrid systems. Although industrial-sized biomass plants and biogas generators are
They stated that finding the optimal size of each component of the currently being used worldwide to produce electricity, the integration
hybrid system is a critical factor in reducing costs, although other of biomass in micro-grids along with other renewable sources has not

Table 1
Some techno-economic studies on hybridizing bio resource with other energy systems.
Study Year Description Result

Sarkar et al. [21] 2019 Hybrid solar, wind and biomass system with battery to supply energy System can meet peak demand and has high reliability. Payback
for a grid-connected region in India to ensure zero loss in probability period for the optimum solution was just under 5 years
of power supply
Bhattacharjee. [22] 2019 A grid-connected hybrid renewable energy system which includes PV, Optimum solution did not include biogas, since COE of PV/BG/grid
wind turbine and biogas generator to supply power in Portugal Island was 3 times higher than COE of PV/grid system
Tiwari et al. [23] 2019 Utilization of biomass to serve the residential energy demand along Due to low solar and wind potential in the selected regions, using
with WT/PV/Battery hybrid renewable system in two European cities biomass resulted in optimum NPC and reduction in local solid waste
disposal costs
Islam et al. [24] 2018 Modeling of three alternative configurations of PV, biogas, and diesel Between three PV based cases, the combined diesel/biogas with
hybrid system with battery for off-grid power production in northern battery had the minimum COE of 0.188 $/kWh and decreased the
rural region of Bangladesh annual CO2 emission up to 75% with 12 years payback period
Goel and Sharma. [25] 2018 Techno-economic and environmental study of biogas and biomass Based on HOMER results, high cost of biomass gasifier and
hybrid system to supply power for a commercial agriculture load in construction of biogas plant resulted in COE of 1.250 $/kWh
India
Kumar Nag and Sarkar. 2018 Optimization of a solar/hydrokinetic/biogas/wind hybrid energy Optimum solution included all resources with COE of 0.356 to 0.241
[26] system for fulfilling future demand by considering different fuel prices $/kWh. Lower bio-fuel cost resulted in higher emissions
Bagheri et al. [27] 2018 Study of solar, wind and biomass hybrid system for an urban area in Using biomass wastes improves the techno-economic performance of
Canada considering the impact of the different economics of scale the system and assists the local government by limiting landfill
wastes and creation of green jobs. The final COE was estimated to be
0.300 to 0.307 $/kWh
Heydari and Askarzadeh. 2016 Optimization of the biomass based photovoltaic stand-alone hybrid Combination of biogas generator with PV technology increased
[28] plant to supply the demand of agriculture wells in Iran by considering reliability and cost-effectiveness of system. The resulting COE range
different initial costs for biogas generator was 0.139 to 0.219 $/kWh

2
A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

become applicable yet. However, power generation by small biomass between the tariff structure and price of electricity. It was also con-
plants could be financially viable, especially for the areas with enough cluded that using battery storage is not cost-effective for such systems.
biomass resources [17]. Power generation by bioenergy could also have Tribioli and Cozzolino [32] developed a self-made simulation tool using
a large range of energy cost due to the variability in feedstock prices Matlab/Simulink software to study a stand-alone power plant for a
and variety of the technologies [18]. Several authors have studied commercial building in eight different climates in the United States.
combining biomass in small-scale systems with other increasingly The results showed that even under optimal weather conditions the cost
popular renewable sources. Perkins [19] compared the costs for a solar of energy is still rather high unless more than half the initial investment
PV and biomass hybrid unit and concluded that for the large-scale re- cost is provided by incentives.
newable plants in areas with substantial bioresource potential, this Several authors have studied the hybridization of renewable re-
hybrid system is less expensive than using bioenergy alone or hy- sources in Iran. Asrari et al. [33] compared the economic and en-
bridizing solar farms with battery banks. Cleary et al. [20] compared vironmental factors for a grid-connected and stand-alone hybrid re-
different sizes of a bioenergy system which harvested the agricultural newable system in the Binalood region of northeast Iran. Fazelpour
residues as feedstock, in Canada. Their result showed that the cost of et al. [34] proposed a combination of PV/WT/DG/battery hybrid
larger scale systems could be either higher or lower than a smaller system for providing electricity to a hotel in Kish Island. The results
system, depending on different economic parameters (such as infla- showed that although the DG/battery system is the most cost-effective,
tion), feed in tariff escalation rates, human forces, plants capacity if environmental factors are taken into consideration the WT/DG/bat-
factor, carbon emission pricing and local waste collection, transporta- tery system is more appropriate. Baneshi and Hadianfard [35] studied a
tion and processing costs. PV/WT/DG hybrid system in both grid-connected and stand-alone
Various researchers have proposed hybrid systems that use the condition for Shiraz city in southern Iran. It was indicated that a 100
biomass potential of rural areas for power generation. Some of the re- percent increase in electricity prices or implementing carbon taxes
cent studies along with their results are shown in Table 1. could considerably improve the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy
Various authors have studied the use of diesel generator as backup systems.
component for renewable hybrid systems. Mandal et al. [29] used In this study, a hybrid system consisting of photovoltaics, biogas
HOMER to investigate the feasibility of a PV/WT/DG hybrid system generator and diesel generator is proposed for meeting the demand of a
with battery for supplying electricity to villages in Bangladesh and grid-connected village in north east of Iran. The main objective of this
Algeria. Their results indicated that the PV/DG/battery system is the paper is to conduct a feasibility study and optimize this hybrid unit for
best case for minimum cost and maximum reliability. It was also ob- providing reliable energy at a minimum cost for far-off villages with
served that the capital cost of the system and discount rate are the two similar resources. Due to the rather unstable economy of the country in
factors that have the most effect on the cost of energy. Saheli et al. [30] recent years, the principle focus is to analyze the effect of economic
proposed a hybrid system including PV/DG/WT/battery in Canada. conditions and governmental policies such as inflation rate, discount
They concluded that the PV/WT/DG system could be economic despite rate and fuel subsidies on the system costs and its performance.
the elimination of battery. The analysis includes a detailed description of area resources and
The main goal of optimizing hybrid power generation systems is to modeling process for all components; including an improvised com-
reduce costs and increase reliability. Secondary objectives such as parative study to find the best PV installation method for the area based
minimizing emissions are also considered by researchers. Tomar and on resource potential, economic parameters and governmental policies.
Tiwari [31] examined the effect of feed-in tariffs on a grid-connected Special attention was given to the modeling of biogas unit since studies
PV system in New Delhi and stated that the main advantages of this concerning the use of biogas in microgrids are still rather scarce. Unlike
system are the demand reduction at peak hours as well as the balance many similar studies, two separate diesel generators were used as a

Fig. 1. Location of Golshan.

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

backup component for replacement of battery bank. In addition, a re- considered beneficial. Solar GHI resource and Clearness index factor for
sponse surface analysis was performed for the first time for a hybrid the area shown in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. Average daily temperature
microgrid unit to give a more complex view of the effect of the com- for each month is also shown in Fig. 6.
ponent capacities on the system costs.
2.2. Biomass resource
2. Methods
Biomass such as animal waste can be used to produce biogas which
Golshan is a rural area located in Neishabur city of Khorasan-e- is suitable fuel for power production. In areas where livestock farming
Razavi province. Golshan, which is considered a tourist village due to is widespread, waste collected from livestock can be a valuable source
its natural attractions and pilgrimage, according to the latest census, of biogas production. Daily animal droppings are about 2 kg for each
has a population of 344 people (85 households). The location of this sheep and 10–15 kg for each cow [38]. The village of Golshan has 85
region in Iran is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The village is located at households and on average each household has 3 cows and 10 sheep
30.7840° N latitude and 55.3300° E longitude. which means the village can produce about 4.5 tons of waste per day.
Due to the relatively warm climate of Iran, people use more energy The average price for each ton of biomass plus the cost for collection
in the summer and near summer months. The HOMER software requires and transportation for 100 km (if resource is collected from neighboring
8760 h of yearly load data of energy consumption. The average amount villages) was estimated to be 10 $/ton.
of consumption for the village of Golshan is 431 kWh/d and peak load
demand is 57.87 kW. The annual load profile for the city is shown in 2.3. Power grid
Fig. 3.
The village has access to the grid. Iran national grid network energy
2.1. Solar radiation tariffs as shown in Fig. 7 are defined by the government. Accordingly,
the cost of consuming each kilowatt of energy in the network is divided
Due to the geographic location of Iran and its location on the into two categories of the summer season and non-summer seasons.
world’s radiation belt, most of its regions have a suitable solar energy Each section is divided into three parts: high power consumption or
potential. The Golshan village also has this feature, with average annual peak hours, average consumption and low consumption hours. The
radiation of 4.8 (kWh/m2 /day). As it can be seen from Fig. 4, the level of time discretization used for production and demand in HOMER
minimum solar radiation is about 2.4 kWh/m2 /day in December and software is one hour; therefore, all the relevant data is provided in the
the maximum solar radiation is about 6.9 kWh/m2 /day in June. The hourly format.
region's average temperature is about 13 °C. The lowest average tem- As shown in Table 2, the price of electricity at peak hours is almost
perature is in January and the highest in July. But given the fact that equal to twice of low-consumption hours which are usually from mid-
the daily temperature rarely reaches 45 °C, there is almost no efficiency night till morning.
loss by heat rising for the solar panel. Most of the power plants in Iran using fossil fuels and especially
According to the average wind speed of the region, which is about natural gas to produce electricity. Pollution is an important problem
3 m/s, and the lack of development of different types of wind turbines which makes additional costs for the government, mainly in the health
in Iran and the need for transportation, installation and specialized care sector. According to the national energy balance sheet for Iran
workforce for maintenance of turbines plus the possibility of noise (2015), emission content and emission penalties for some of the major
pollution the use of wind turbines for a small village in this area was not pollutants are shown in Table 3. Due to the very low emissions of the

Fig. 2. Close-up of Golshan village.

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

Fig. 3. Annual electricity consumption (load profile) of Golshan [36].

8 30
Daily Radiation (kW/m2/day)

7
25
Average daily Temp (°C)

6
20
5
4 15
3
10
2
1 5

0 0

Month Month

Fig. 4. Solar GHI Resource for the Golshan region [37]. Fig. 6. Average monthly temperature for Golshan region [37].

remote areas, especially during the summer when the demand is

January
0.7 highest. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 8, it was assumed based on the
December February average grid outages, reported in the area by the Ministry of Energy of
0.6
0.5 Iran, that 60 outages happen per year with the mean repair time of 4 h.
November 0.4 March
0.3 3. Modeling and components description
0.2
0.1
October 0 April The proposed system is shown in Fig. 9. Due to the system being
connected to the grid and the high cost of batteries, no storage system
was considered, although this means that electricity can’t be stored for
sale at peak hours but by using diesel generator this defect can be
September May
covered.

August June 3.1. Economic inputs

July
This research attempts to find an economic and sustainable hybrid
Fig. 5. Clearness index for the Golshan region [37]. power system which uses biomass, diesel and solar energy to supply
electricity for a remote village. The economic assumptions for the
project are shown in Table 4.
system, the upper limit for all emissions was set at zero to make the
HOMER uses these factors to calculate the cost summary for each
penalties apply in any case and direct the software towards using more
scenario. Some of the most important factors used in HOMER are de-
renewable energies.
fined in the below parameters. The system fixed capital and O&M cost
Various factors such as erosion, power failure response at peak
were evaluated based on land prices in the area, salary for plant op-
hours, defects and other problems such as destructions of transmission
erators and side fees including taxes and insurance. Emission penalties
lines may cause power failure and reduce the reliability of the region's
were also taken into account to consider related social cost of each
power supply. The probability of this problem is greater for villages and
pollutant particle and its impact on the near future.

5
A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

Fig. 7. Annual electricity tariffs for the grid [36].

Net Present Cost, is the present valence of all the costs the project Table 3
incurs over its lifetime, minus the present value of all the revenue it Iran power plants emission content and its associated emission penalties for
earns during its lifetime. Costs include capital and replacement costs, major pollutants.
operation and maintenance costs, emissions penalties, fuel costs and the Emission particle Emissions content (g/ Emissions Penalties [39]
costs of buying electricity from the power grid. Revenues consist sal- kWh) ($/t)
vage value and grid sales revenue. The annualized cost of a component
Carbon Dioxide 660.65 2.86
can be calculated with NPC using Eq. (1) [40]:
Carbon Monoxide 0.62 54
Cann = CRF(i. R) ∗ NPC (1) Unburned Hydrocarbons 180.18 60
Particulate Matter 0.12 1228.60
where CRF is the capital recovery factor and is calculated by using Sulfur Dioxide 1.66 521.50
Nitrogen Oxides 2.38 171.50
following equation.

i(1 + i)R
CRF(i. n) =
(1 + i)R − 1 (2) where Cann . capital is the total annualized capital cost.
Salvage, is the remaining value of a component at the end of project
where R is the project lifetime and i is the real annual interest rate life time. It means that salvage value of a component is proportional to
which is calculated by Eq. (3) where i° is the nominal interest rate and remaining life and calculated by Eq. (6) [43]:
annual inflation rate is shown as f [41].
R
R comp − (R − R comp. INT( R ))
i°−f comp
i= S = Crep
1+f (3) R comp (6)
Cost of Energy, is defined as the average cost per kWh of lucrative where Crep is the replacement cost and R comp is the component lifetime.
electrical energy generated by the desired system and is calculated by Modeling for each of the system components are discussed in the fol-
Eq. (4) [42]: lowing sections.
Cann.total
COE =
Eserved (4) 3.2. Photovoltaic panels
where Eserved is the total electric load served by the system.
Operating Cost, OC is the annualized value of all costs and revenues The power generated by a PV panel depends on both environmental
other than initial capital costs. Eq. (5) is used to calculated OC [43]: and structural factors such as solar radiation, wind speed, cell tem-
perature etc. HOMER uses Eqs. (7–10) to calculate the power output of
OC = Cann.total − Cann.capital (5) a PV array [44]:

Table 2
Grid purchase and renewable energy sellback prices.

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

Fig. 8. Grid outages during the year [36].

τα T − Ta.NOCT
= c.NOCT
UL G T.NOCT (9)

Another factor to be considered for calculating PV output power is

the DC-AC converter efficiency [45]:
Pinv.out = ηinv PPV (10)

Capital cost for a 1 kW PV panel is considered as $1200/kW with

13% efficiency, nominal operating cell temperature of 45 °C and a 25-
year lifetime. Operation and maintenance costs were taken to be $20/
year since PV panels generally require very little maintenance such as
dust/snow cleaning, routine inspections and other necessary repairs.

3.3. Diesel Generator

Diesel Generator mostly acts as backup in hybrid systems, for times

when renewable sources are unavailable. It also reduces the need to use
the storage system [46]. Although the system considered in this simu-
lation is grid-connected, grid outages in the area are frequent enough to
warrant the use of diesel generators.
Diesel price is about 0.1 $/L in Iran. Since this price is heavily
Fig. 9. The configuration of hybrid PV/Bio/Diesel system as designed in subsidized and the government has declared its intention to reduce the
HOMER software. amount of subsidization in the near future to avoid fuel smuggling, two
other prices 0.4 $/L and 1 $/L were also considered. Using two gen-
erators instead one increases the flexibility of the power production
GT ⎞
PPV = YPV fPV ⎛ ⎜ ⎟[1 + αP (Tc − Tc.STC)] plan. Considered size for the smaller generator is 10 kW, plus a 15 kW
⎝ G T.STC ⎠ (7) generator with 15,000 operating hours. Capital cost for each generator
is evaluated using information from the manufacturer’s website while
where YPV is the rated capacity of the PV array, fPV is the derating factor
operations and maintenance costs are 0.1 $/h, which was estimated
which counts for the reduction from the rated capacity of the panel due
from common market prices in the country. Hourly fuel consumption of
to shading, accumulation of dust and snow and losses from equipment
diesel generator is calculated by Eq. (11) [47]:
aging. GT is the solar radiation incident on the PV array, GT . STC is ir-
radiation at standard test conditions, αP is the temperature coefficient of FCDgen (t) = α. PR + β . P(t) (11)
power, Tc is the PV cell temperature, and Tc . STC is the PV cell tempera-
where FCDgen (t) is the fuel consumption of diesel generator (l/h) and
ture under standard conditions (25 °C).
P (t ) is the diesel generator power at a certain time, PR is the rated power
Temperature coefficient shows the effect of temperature rise on
of diesel generator andα , β are constants.
output power and is considered to be −0.25%/°C. HOMER calculates
the cell temperature in each time step by using the following energy
balance equation [29]: 3.4. Biogas generator

ταG T = ηc G T + UL (Tc − Ta) (8) In order to obtain biogas from biomass, a gasifier or digester is
needed. Gasifiers are usually used at industrial scale operations where
where τ is the solar transmittance of the cover over PV array, α is the the biomass resource is diverse (household organic residual, industry
solar absorptance of the PV array, ηc is the electrical conversion effi- waste materials etc.) and have the advantage of converting biomass to
ciency of the PV array, UL is the coefficient of heat transfer to the biogas in very short time with high efficiency. Digesters or fermentation
surrounding and Ta is the ambient temperature. Solving this equation tanks are less expensive than gasifiers and more suitable for small-scale
for cell temperature and assuming Tc . NOCT to be the nominal operating applications. However, digesters have lower conversion efficiency and
cell temperature defined at an incident radiation of 0.8 kW/m2, an depending on the torture, it takes between 10 and 40 days to convert
ambient temperature of 20 °C, wind speed of 1 m/s, and no load op- biomass to biogas in a digester. A small fermenter with 10 m3 nominal
eration (meaning ηc = 0 ) which is reported by the manufacturer, yields volume can produce around 1.5–4 m3 of biogas every day [48]. A small
[43]: digester system consisting of fermentation tank, gas storage and biogas

Table 4
Summary of project economics.
Project Lifetime (years) System Fixed Capital Cost ($) System Fixed O&M Cost ($/year) Nominal Discount Rate (%) Expected Inflation Rate (%)

25 70,000 6,000 4–12–15–18 5–10–15

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

generator is shown in Fig. 10. 350

Litre gas/Kg dry matter

The amount of biogas produced from the digester or gasifier can be 300
calculated using Eq. (12) [43]:
250
BiogasYield(m3) = fgas (kggas/kgbiomass) ∗ biomassfeedstock(kg/day)
200
(12)
150
where fgas is the gasification ratio that HOMER uses to calculate the
100
resultant biogas. The density of biogas is assumed to be 1.15 kg/m3 and
the water content of cattle manure is taken to be 88%. Using Fig. 11 to 50
estimate the amount of biogas produces for 1 kg of dry manure, fgas is Days
0
calculated by Eq. (13) [43]: 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.12kg drydung 0.18m3biogas kgbiogas Fig. 11. biogas yield for cow manure at 30 °C [50].
fgas = 1kg wetdung ∗ ∗ ∗ 1.15
1kg wetdung 1kg drydung m3biogs
kg animal manure [52]. Using the above equations, it can be concluded
= 0.025 biomasss
kg (13) that for producing 1 kW of power from biomass, 32 kg of feed and a
0.7 m3 digester are needed. The cost of fermentation tanks is included
Since the process is mesophilic and the temperature of the tanks
with the cost of generator for simulation.
should be kept at 35–40 °C, a portion of the energy yield is used to
Most gas engines can be used to produce electricity from biogas in
warm the storage tanks. This amount is estimated to be %15 of the
small-scale plants if the biogas is treated [49]. The treatment of biogas
produced energy based on mean temperatures in the area and therefore
includes gas condensation which removes most of the water vapor and
should be noted while calculating gasification ratio [50].
gas purification which removes hydrogen sulfide which corrosive in
In order to estimate the cost of fermentation tanks and biogas
combination with CO2 and water vapor and usually has high con-
generator, first the amount of energy produced by biomass needs to be
centration in gases produced from animal manure [50]. In this study a
calculated. Assuming calorific value of biogas as 4700 kcal/m3, con-
10 kW KOHLER gas generator with the capital cost of $3000 was
version factor as 860, gas generator having electrical efficiency 95% of
chosen. The condensation is assumed to happen in the gas storage with
and combustion efficiency of 37%, Eq. (12) and Eq. (13) are used to
the condensed water going back to the manure digestion tanks. Adding
calculate biogas and energy yield [51]:
a ZnO bed for hydrogen sulfide absorption, the total cost for a 10 kW
BiogadasYield = Biomass(kg) ∗ 0.12 ∗ 0.18 = 0.0216m3/kgfeed (14) biogas plant was estimated at $8000 [50]. Economic data for all the
system components are show in Table 5.
EnergyYield = (0.0216(m3) ∗ 4700 ∗ 0.95 ∗ 0.28)/860
= 0.031(kWh/kgfeed) (15) 4. Results and discussion
Considering the waiting period for digestion to be 20 days (the
process is mesophilic) and an excess volume of 20%, the working vo- In this section, after a comparison to determine the most efficient
lume of the anaerobic digester was calculated using Eq. (16): method for PV installation, the results of economic analysis from
HOMER software are presented and a response surface analysis is
Vdigester = 1.2 ∗ 20 ∗ q (m3/ day ) (16) conducted to better demonstrate the effect of several system parameters
where q is the biomass flowrate. A separate gas storage is also used such as component capacities on system costs.
which is assumed to hold the resultant biogas for 1 day, the volume of
the gas storage is calculated by applying Eq. (16) and assuming 10% 4.1. Distributed photovoltaics vs centralized
excess volume:
A comparative analysis was done to determine whether the best
Vgasstorage = 1.1 ∗ biogasyield (m3/day ) (17)
method of installing PV panels in this project is as top roof photo-
where q is the biomass feed volumetric flowrate and can be calculated voltaics or a centralized photovoltaic plant. The advantages and dis-
by estimating the density of feed using density tables for different advantages of each method of installation for a similar capacity of PVs

Fig. 10. Small biomass digester and biogas generator [49].

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

Table 5
Economic data for system components.
Component description Capital cost Operation and maintenance cost Lifetime

Generic flat plate photovoltaic panel 1200 $/kW 20 $/year 25 yrs

Generac 15 kW protector 10,899 $/unit 0.1 $/h 15,000 h
Diesel Generator-5 or 10 kW $500/kW 0.1 $/h 15,000 h
Biogas 10 kW generator (gas generator plus fermentation tank and gas storage) $8000 0.1 $/h 20,000 h
System converter $600/kW 20 $/year 15 yrs

Table 6
Comparison of distributed PV vs centralized PV plant.
Power Plant Advantages Top Roof Advantages

Lower installation cost than installation of the same capacity on the roofs [53] No need for additional land and optimization of available top-roof space [54]
Easier and more cost effective installation for control equipment like a tracking No need for additional transmission lines, additional buffering, load-following or high-level
system [55] protection (voltage protection, insulation, lightning protection, etc.) [56]
Higher efficiency and environmental friendly index due to the more precise Energy independence for residential units, especially important in areas with unreliable grid
location identification of a plant [57] [58]
Higher capacity factor in the plant's dimensions [59] The possibility of self-consumption and reduction of electricity bills [60]
Better government facilities in most countries than top roof PVs [61] A source of income for residents (especially in the poorer regions) if grid sellback is possible
[62]
PV installation (weight of 30–60 kg/m2) could be dangerous for houses with poor Creating insulation for rooftops, particularly reducing cooling demand in warm seasons
construction, especially in rural areas [63] [64]
Repairs are done easier and faster an expert workforce [58] No additional costs for system maintenances done by the homeowner [58]
From the aesthetic point of view, placing a panel on the roof can reduce the beauty No need to install straightener for sloping panels on steep roofs [65]
of the houses [58]
Cost-effectiveness is less influenced by economic parameters such as investment More reliable system regarding potential failures (such as hot spot and diode fault for cells)
cost, electricity rate, discount rate and service life [66] [67]
Higher installation and maintenance costs for string inverters used in household Less accruement of soil, dust, snow and shadow than plants (maintenance difficulties in
PVs than centralized inverters used in PV farms [68] large size) [67]
Employment for people in rural and poor areas [69] Lower transmission losses [70]

Table 7
Optimal scenarios for different economic conditions.
Scenario Nominal Discount Rate Expected Inflation Rate PV (kW) Bio (kW) Diesel NPC ($) COE (¢) Re. Fraction CO2 (Kg/ Grid power balance
(%) (%) (kW) (%) yr) (kWh)

A 4 10 139.5 6 10 & 15 970,469 7.1 68.30 2,213 −31,620

B 12 10 139.5 6 10 & 15 547,308 11.3 68.30 2,213 −31,620
C 18 10 63 10 10 & 15 398,151 19.3 50.65 51,369 39,120
D 18 15 63 10 10 & 15 521,590 15.8 50.65 51,369 39,120
E 12 5 63 10 10 & 15 409,822 18.8 50.65 51,369 39,120

Table 8 Table 9
Comparison of project economics for different diesel prices. Annualized cost of System No. 1 by component.
Scenario Term Diesel Price Component Capital Replacement O&M Fuel Salvage Total
($/yr) ($/yr) ($/yr) ($/yr) ($/yr) ($/yr)
$0.1/L $0.4/L $1/L
PV 6647 0 1260 0 0 7,907
A NPC ($) 970,469 990,400 1,200,000 Diesel Generators 1398 1017 307 973 (2 1 5) 3480
COE (¢) 7.14 7.3 7.48 Biogas Generator 703 0 77 4285 (3) 5,062
B NPC ($) 530,179 557,619 567,549 System Converter 2110 736 267 0 (1 2 2) 2992
COE (¢) 11 11.6 11.8 System 17,014 1754 11,324 5258 (3 4 0) 35,009
C NPC ($) 394,910 406,203 412,548
COE (¢) 19.1 19.7 20.0
D NPC ($) 509,785 532,147 542,048
of installation for centralized PVs is lower compared to top-roof in-
COE (¢) 11.6 16.1 16.4
E NPC ($) 409,822 418,124 424,809 stallation. Solar power plants also generate more efficient power due to
COE (¢) 18.8 19.2 19.5 the fact that site feasibility can be assessed before plant construction.
Repairing damaged equipment in a plant is faster and more suitable. In
addition, these plants will create jobs for the local people. Therefore, if
are shown in Table 6. Several point of views (investor, government, the government's goal is to reduce the cost of electricity, help the en-
environment, homeowner and other affected sections by installing PV vironment and create jobs, the installation of the photovoltaic plant will
panels) were taken into consideration. In general, the role of govern- be appropriate. This is done either directly by the government or by
ment policies and facilities in cost efficiency of each of these systems is donating low-interest loans for investors.
indisputable. Therefore, due to the current government policies concerning the
Decentralized systems do not require much additional equipment, development of renewable energies in remote areas, the centralized
and there is no need for additional land. Transmission losses are supply of electricity will be more beneficial and reliable. Also, because
minimized in these systems. Also, most of the system maintenance of current economic facilities being provided, investors have a higher
could be carried out by the homeowners themselves. However, the cost

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

Fig. 12. Monthly average power pro-

duction for optimal system No.1.

tendency for investing in PV power plants. Accordingly, this project is

simulated by assuming common prices and interest rates associated
with power plant size equipment.

4.2. HOMER software results

The optimum hybrid scenario for some of the most likely economic
conditions based on the economic data from the past decade and as-
suming diesel price is 0.1 $/L are shown in Table 7. It can be seen that
in cases when the discount rate is rather low comparing to inflation, for
example when investors are able to secure low interest loans from the
government as part of the green energy development policy, it is
profitable to invest more in solar energy as the suggested capacity of PV
panels is about twice the scenarios when discount rate is high. The grid
power balance shows the amount of power bought from the grid minus
the amount sold to the grid.
The optimum scenario for each set of economic conditions doesn’t
seem to be dependent on fuel price and remains the same when the
price is changed, but other details such as NPC, COE and the amount of
diesel fuel used for power production all change with the price. A
Fig. 13. Power output of 15 kW diesel generator throughout the year for diesel comparison of some project economics for different diesel prices is
price of (a) $0.1/L and (b) $0.4/L. shown in Table 8. It is observed that the change in price affects NPC
more than COE which is mainly happening due to the system using less
diesel fuel. It can be seen from Table 7 that scenarios A and B are si-
milar to each other, just like scenarios C, D and E are the same. All these
scenarios use a combination of PV/bio/diesel but their component sizes
vary. These five scenarios can be summarized as two main systems
which will be analyzed more thoroughly in the next section. First sce-
nario is 63 kW Photovoltaics, 10 kW biogas, 10 and15 kW diesel gen-
erators namely Optimum System No. 1 and the second scenario is
139 kW Photovoltaics, 6 kW biogas, 10 and 15 kW diesel generators
namely Optimum System No. 2.

4.2.1. Optimum system No. 1

This system is the optimum scenario for the most likely economic
conditions where the investor isn’t able to secure a government loan.
Annualized cost and electricity generation of this system for 10% in-
flation rate and 18% discount rate are shown in Table 9 and Fig. 12.
Most of the Initial capital is spent on PV panels with O&M and fuel costs
mainly belonging to the diesel and biogas generators.
It can be seen that most of the power is being produced by PV panels
and the 15 kW diesel generator. This is a result of PV panels having very
Fig. 14. Electricity (a) purchased from grid and (b) sold to grid throughout the low O&M costs and the price of diesel being low in this case. If the price
year.
of diesel is increased to 0.4 $/L or higher, the operation of both diesel
generators becomes limited to times of grid outages as seen in Fig. 13(a)
and (b). Although the power produced by biogas generator is only a
very small percentage of the power plan, biomass costs take up to 90%
of the overall fuel cost which means the reason for biogas generator not
being used more often is the high cost of biomass. The grid is the second
main source of power in this system. The hourly rates for energy pur-
chased from the grid and energy sold to the grid are shown in Fig. 14(a)
and (b). The power production for PV panels is also shown in Fig. 15. It
can be seen that during daylight hours’ power is mostly supplied by PV
panels with the diesel and biogas generators acting as backup and the
excess energy being sold to the grid, while energy purchase from the
Fig. 15. PV power output throughout the year. grid mainly happens between 6 and 12p.m.
The cash flow for the project is also shown in Fig. 16. Most of the

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

20000

-20000

-40000
15kW diesel generator
-60000
Biogas generator
-80000 PV

-100000 10KW diesel generator

Grid
-120000
Other
-140000

-160000
YEARS
-180000
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Fig. 16. Project cash flow by component.

Fig. 17. Monthly average power production

for optimal system NO.2 for 10% inflation
and 12% discount rate.

Table 10 profitable to investors. The share of biogas and diesel generators in

Annualized cost of System No. 2 by component. power production is slightly lower in this scenario, although power
Component Capital Replacement O&M Fuel Salvage Total
production by diesel generator becomes much lower when the price of
($/yr) ($/yr) ($/yr) ($/yr) ($/yr) ($/yr) diesel is increased, and the size of the converter is 60 kW compared to
40 kW in the first optimal system because of higher PV capacity. An-
PV 8392 0 2790 0 0 11,182 nualized costs for each component of this system for 10% inflation rate
Diesel Generators 797 861 268 882 (2 0 6) 2601
Biogas Generator 241 0 45 2529 (7) 2808
and 12% discount rate are shown in Table 10.
System Converter 1805 1377 400 0 (3 8 3) 3199 Although system No.1 can meet the energy demands of the village
System 14,744 2238 7641 3411 (5 9 6) 27,439 with purchasing only 1.2 times electricity from the grid compared to
the second system, it is the high cost of energy, average 19 ¢/kWh vs
9 ¢/kWh for grid electricity that might make this system a less desirable
initial capital is spent on PV panels and system fixed capital. Replace- choice. System No.2 also has a higher renewable fraction and much
ment costs mostly belong to the 15 kW diesel generator which is re- lower CO2 emissions; therefore, this system is clearly the better option
placed almost every 9 years and system converter which is replaced when government resources can be acquired for the project.
after 15 years. Due to the expected inflation being rather high it is
advantageous to invest in more durable components.
4.3. Sensitivity analysis
4.2.2. Optimum system No. 2
The second optimum system mostly uses PV panels for power pro- The total net present cost of the system with COE data points based
duction and sells the extra electricity to the grid as seen in Fig. 17. on inflation rate and discount rate for a 0.4 $/L diesel price are shown
Although the Net Present Cost for this scenario is higher than the first in Fig. 18. It can be seen that by lowering discount rate and increasing
system, the COE is much lower and the sale of extra electricity can be inflation the NPC becomes higher and COE becomes lower, which

Fig. 18. Surface plot of total NPC with COE data points.

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

Fig. 19. Surface plot of Bio capacity with CO2 emission data points.

30000 1400 shown in Fig. 19 along with CO2 emission as data points. There are

Gen10 Power Production (KW)

discernable lines that separate different regions on the graph. It appears
Gen15 Power Production (KW)

25000 1200
that when inflation is higher than 10% while discount rate is lower than
1000 12%, which only happens if the project is funded by very low-interest
20000
800 loans or the government itself, Bio capacity reaches its minimum while
Gen15
15000 PV capacity reaches its maximum. The optimum capacity for Biogas
600
10000
generator in the likeliest economic conditions is between 6.5 kW and
Gen10 400 10 kW and as shown by the data points the CO2 emission for this area is
5000 200 between 1000 and 40,000 kg/yr. It is possible for the system to have
negative CO2 emission by selling green energy to the grid but this only
0 0
0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 happens when discount rate is lower or equal to inflation.
Diesel Price ($/L) The power production by diesel generators in case of different diesel
prices for 10% inflation and 18% discount rate is shown in Fig. 20.
Fig. 20. Power production of 10 kW and 15 kW diesel generators based on Although the graph will probably be closer to a curve shape if more
diesel price. diesel prices are considered, it is evident that raising the price causes
the system to minimize the use of the 15 kW diesel generator and
2 moving towards using the smaller generator as backup.
PV The sensitivity analysis for NPC and COE upon diesel price and
capacities of PV, Biogas, Diesel generator and converter is shown in
1 Biogas
Fig. 21. PV power is produced as DC and needs a converter for entering
Sensitivity

Diesel the grid. Therefore, using PV without converter is not economic and
0 causes the NPC and COE to rise. This is the reason the COE and NPC
Converter
NPC

COE

have positive sensitivity upon the PV capacity, but negative sensitivity

upon the converter capacity. The diesel generator capacity and diesel
-1 Diesel
Price price both cause raising on the NPC and COE, while biogas generator
seems to decrease the NPC and COE.
-2

Fig. 21. The local sensitivity for NPC and COE upon system parameters. 4.4. Response surface

A response surface analysis using the Non Parametric Regression

actually shows the optimal system moving toward using higher capacity
method was also conducted on the results, obtained from the optimi-
PV panels and spending more initial capital that in turn decreases COE.
zation of the system, for 10% inflation and 18% discount rate. A closer
Since the most probable economic conditions happen between 10 and
look at the response surface analysis can be helpful in determining the
15% inflation and 12–18% discount rate, it can be concluded that the
optimum capacity of each system component with regards to a specific
system will likely have a minimum COE of 0.085 $/kWh and a max-
parameter. Fig. 22 shows the COE of the system versus the PV capacity
imum COE of 0.238 $/kWh.
and biogas generator capacity. It seems that the lowest COE is achieved
Another useful deduction can be made by looking at the effect of
for 5 kW PV, and the COE starts to decrease after that PV reaches
discount rate and inflation rate on bio capacity of the system which is
1100 kW. This is consistent with the results obtained by [71], who

1.6 0.39

0.34
1.2
0.29
COE

0.8
COE

0.24
0.4
0.19

0 0.14
1

201

401

601

801

1001

1201

11

13

15

17

19

PV capacty (KW) Biogas generator capacity (KW)

Fig. 22. Response surface analysis for COE of system vs (a) PV capacity and (b) Biogas generator capacity.

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A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

Table 11
Economic comparison of different grid-connected hybrid systems simulated by HOMER software.
Refs. Year Location Study area System Load (kWh/d) COE (₵/kWh) Renewable fraction (%)

Phurailatpam et al. [72] 2018 India Residential complex PV/WT/Battery/Grid 358.8 16.3 69.1
Li et al. [73] 2018 China Residential complex PV/Grid 212.8 9.9 8
PV/Battery/Grid 14.1 8
Dhundhara et al. [74] 2018 India Rural area PV/WT/Battery/Grid 490.6 12.2 70.5
Rajbongshi et al. [9] 2017 India Rural area PV/DG/BG/Grid 178 9.1 90 >
Isa et al. [75] 2016 Malaysia Hospital PV/Grid 250 15.5 10
PV/Battery/Grid 16.5 15
Nacer et al. [76] 2016 Algeria Dairy farm PV/Grid 23.6 20.8 80
Baneshi and Hadianfard [35] 2016 Iran Non-residential DG/PV/WT/Grid 9911 8.4 22
Kalinci et al. [77] 2015 Turkey Island city Grid/PV/WT 1875 11.2 72
Grid/PV 18.6 9
Grid/WT 10.3 68

concluded that 5–20 kW residential and 1000–10,000 kW commercial of each components’ capacity on the COE and NPC of the optimum
PV systems had the maximum profitability gain among all capacities. system. The results showed that the COE of the optimum system falls
The best capacity for biogas generator with regard to COE is also about into an acceptable range for a renewable hybrid system, although many
5 kW in small capacities, while similar to the PV chart, the COE starts factors could be crucial in finalizing the decision for unit construction.
dropping when the capacity becomes higher than 15 kW. These results The results of this study might be beneficial for the areas with similar
confirm the general consensus that energy systems are most profitable climate conditions and energy resources. However, the sensitivity
in small residential sizes or much bigger commercial sizes, whereas analysis results concerning the economic factors could be beneficial for
constructing a unit somewhere between those two sizing ranges would investors and policy makers trying to assess the larger scope of eco-
be less cost effective. nomic conditions’ effect on the cost-effectiveness of renewable hybrid
systems.
4.5. Comparison analysis
• The optimum scenario for 18% discount rate and 10% inflation rate
The purpose of this section is to compare the range of simulation and a diesel price of 0.1 $/L uses 63 kW PV,10 kW biogas generator
results with other hybrid systems. Table 11 shows the cost of energy and 12 kW diesel generator to produce power that costs 19.3
and the renewable fraction of grid-connected hybrid systems which ¢/kWh. It should be noted that according to government reports, if
simulated by HOMER software. environmental factors are taken into account the actual cost of grid
Depending on the economic conditions, the energy cost of the op- power would be around 18 ¢/kWh.
timal power generation system in this study varies from 8 to 19 cents • Government facilities and subsidies can play an important role in
per kWh. Results from other studies also show a range of variations decision making for the method investors choose to install a pho-
between 8.4 and 20.8 cents per kWh. The most important factors in- tovoltaic system.
fluencing the system’s cost of energy are parameters such as grid power • Although it seems using a biogas generator as backup along with
tariffs, renewable resources of the region, the electricity demand, and diesel generator is advantageous to some level, especially in case of
the price of fuel and equipment. The percentage of renewable electricity high diesel prices, it is concluded that due to the low efficiency of
production is also a very effective parameter on the cost of energy. Two the conversion process and the small size of the generator, using
studies, Ref. [73] and [75], have proven that using batteries in grid- biomass as a power source is not very cost effective and needs to be
connected systems increases the system costs. This is a confirmation of associated with better equipment such as gasifiers which are eco-
the strategy used in this paper, namely using diesel generator instead of nomic for bigger plants.
battery to manage the peaks of load. Ref. [35] has also been conducted • In case of a low discount rate and depending on the amount of
in Iran, but due to the assumption of a fixed price for electricity grid, available initial capital, using a high capacity of PV panels with
high capacity of power generation, high power generation from cheap small capacity generators acting as backup can greatly reduce the
wind turbines, as well as increased grid electricity cost over the last cost of energy and be financially beneficial in the long run.
three years, the final energy cost is very low. It should be noted that • The price of diesel doesn’t affect the optimum scenario itself but
unstable economic conditions are not considered in any of these studies. results in higher PV capacity or grid power purchases. HOMER uses
two diesel generators even if one might be able to provide backup
5. Conclusion power for the system, which shows that the added flexibility over-
comes the extra cost.
Renewable resource hybridization is an efficient, clean and reliable
method for supplying electricity to rural areas. In this paper, the
technical, economic and environmental features of a grid-connected Declaration of Competing Interest
hybrid unit have been investigated. The hybrid unit uses biomass, solar
and diesel as resource for supplying electricity to a small village in Iran. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
Several novel approaches were taken to model each component, in- interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
cluding comparison of centralized and decentralized PV installations, ence the work reported in this paper.
modeling fermentation tanks for biomass and using two separate diesel
generators to increase the system flexibility. HOMER software was used
to find the optimum unit configuration for producing the needed power Acknowledgement
at a minimum cost under different economic conditions. The study
deals with the effect of these economic parameters including inflation, The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from
discount rate and diesel price on the system costs. Also, a response the National Taipei University of Technology-University of Tehran
surface analysis was performed for determining the extent of the effects Joint Research Program, NTUT-UT-107-01.

13
A. Kasaeian, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111810

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