Application of hybrid renewable energy systems for supplying electricity demand of a water pump station of agricultural plants: a case-based research

Abstract

Abstract Employing clean energy production in agricultural purposes has attracted the attention of many researchers. One of the challenges is the flexible nature of irrigation of the plants that need to have a changeable power source of pump stations to supply the load demands. Renewable energies are among the best solutions to supply environmentally-friendly power, especially in remote areas where there is no access to the electricity. This study considers the needed water of five different plants, and according to the calculated hydromodule, the capacity of the pump station as well as its monthly and yearly load demands are determined. Based on the calculated load demand, different configurations of hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) are considered, and the optimum sizes of equipment are determined. The needed load demand is 1463 kWh/day and peak load is 266.16 kW. Based on the suppositions and inputs of this study, results show that the best economic configuration would be PV/wind turbine/diesel generator/battery the way that cost of energy (COE) and net present cost (NPC are 0.28 ($/kWh) and $2.48 million. Also, the best environmentally friendly system (PV/wind turbine/battery) where CO2 emission is zero and RF is 100%, can be obtained with 647 kW PV panels and 106 wind turbines, the way that COE and NPC values are 0.5 ($/kWh) and 4.41 $ million. To reach the best technical system (PV/generator/battery), 514 kW PV, 100 kW diesel generator, and 1816 batteries would have the least unmeted load and excess electricity where COE and NPC values are 0.34 ($/kWh) and 2.98$ million.