Abstract

In recent times, hybrid renewable energy systems are increasingly being utilized to provide electricity in remote areas especially where the grid extension is considered too expensive. This study presents the results of techno‐economic analysis of hybrid system comprising of solar and wind energy for powering a specific remote mobile base transceiver station ( BTS ) in Nigeria. All the necessary modeling, simulation, and techno‐economic evaluation are carried out using the assessment software package HOMER (Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable). Two best optimal system configurations namely PV –diesel–battery and PV –wind–diesel–battery systems are compared with the conventional stand‐alone diesel generator (DG) system. Findings indicated that PV array (10 kW) – DG (5.5 kW) – battery (64 units Trojan L16P) is the most economically viable option with the total net present cost of $69,811 and per unit cost of electricity of $0.409. The sensitivity analysis is also carried out to find the effects of probable variation in solar radiation, wind speed, and diesel price in the optimal system configurations. Finally, the environmental benefit of hybrid systems over the conventional stand‐alone diesel system is described. The obtained results show that the hybrid PV –diesel–battery system provides a reduction in CO ₂ emissions of about 16.4 tons per year as compared to the stand‐alone DG system.

Utilizing RE‐based hybrid system in conjunction with conventional DG for powering BTS sites decrease the operating hours of the DG, thus leading to reduction in operating cost which has direct impact on the low‐income rural telecom's subscriber, it also bring low greenhouse gas emission to the environment.