Techno-Economic Assessment of a Standalone Hybrid System Using Various Solar Tracking Systems for Kalpeni Island, India

Achieving electrification in an island considering less emission and levelized energy cost is a challenging goal on developing islands such as Kalpeni Island. This work exhibits the techno-economic assessment of a standalone hybrid system to generate power to Kalpeni Island, India through sensitivity and optimization analysis using HOMER software. Various system configurations like solar/DG, wind/DG, solar/wind/DG, and solar/wind are analyzed based on cost and electrical parameters. Based on the optimization results, the best hybrid system is chosen for Kalpeni Island considering different solar tracking methods. Then, multi-year and sensitivity analysis are performed to analyze the effect of load growth, rising diesel price, rising battery minimum SOC, rising PVS derating, rising photovoltaic cell temperature, and changing inverter and rectifier efficiency. The system operated with a solar photovoltaic system (PVS) and diesel generator (DG) with a tracking system on a vertical axis (TSVA) shows the best optimization result compared to other hybrid configurations with a low levelized energy cost (LEC) of 0.222 $/kWh and net present cost (CNP) of $448,269 for the chosen location. The TSVA plays a vital role on power production in the system operated with solar and DG sources, which produces 9.77% more power compared to fixed system without tracking (FSWT). The total emission produced in the system operated with solar and diesel generator with TSVA is 88.2% less compared to an WT/DG configuration operated with FSWT