Optimal design of hybrid energy system based on persuasive policies for renewable resources in Iran (case study: University of Bojnord)

Governments all over the world are tending to accelerate the process of replacing fossil based energies with renewable energy sources through developing incentive or punitive policies. In Iran, various incentive and punitive guidelines are regulated to persuade governmental and nongovernmental organizations to use renewable energy resources. In this paper, optimal planning and sizing of distributed renewable energy resources for governmental organizations in Iran, under persuasive policies, is proposed. This design includes a techno-economic analysis on the basis of total Net Present Cost (NPC) to obtain the optimal configuration of the hybrid energy system for governmental institutes among all possible combinations of distributed diesel generators (consisting of internal combustion engines with diesel fuel) as well as renewable energy resources such as wind energy conversion systems and solar photovoltaics. In order to evaluate the economic and technical aspects of the persuasive policies for governmental institutes in Iran, an optimal hybrid energy system is designed to provide for the energy consumption of the University of Bojnord. The proposed hybrid energy system consists of 100 kW photovoltaic panels, 20 kW wind turbines, a 10 kW diesel generator, and 10 one kW h batteries. The total NPC of the system is estimated to be 1.04 $M. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to investigate the impact of economic indicators on the design. The results show that the University of Bojnord would benefit from investing in the proposed design after six years.