Techno-Economic and Environmental Assessment of the Hybrid Energy System Considering Electric and Thermal Loads

Optimal sizing of hybrid energy systems has been considerably investigated in previous studies. Nevertheless, most studies only focused on providing AC electric loads by renewable energy sources (RESs) and energy storage systems (ESSs). In this paper, a hybrid energy system, including photovoltaic (PV) system, ESS, fuel cell (FC), natural gas (NG) boiler, thermal load controller (TLC), and converter is optimized for supplying different load demands. Three scenarios are introduced to investigate the feasibility of the energy system. Environmental aspects of each system are analyzed, as there are NG-consuming sources in the system structure. A sensitivity analysis is conducted on the influential parameters of the system, such as inflation rate and interest rate. Simulation results show that the proposed hybrid energy system is economically and technically feasible. The net present cost (NPC) and cost of energy (COE) of the system are obtained at $230,223 and $0.0409, respectively. The results indicate that the TLC plays a key role in the optimal operation of the PV system and the reduction in greenhouse gas emission productions.