1. An economic and environmental optimization model for sizing a hybrid renewable energy and battery storage system in off-grid farms.
- Author
-
Mérida García, Aida, Gallagher, John, Rodríguez Díaz, Juan Antonio, and McNabola, Aonghus
- Subjects
- *
LIFE cycle costing , *RENEWABLE energy sources , *AGRICULTURE , *POWER resources , *PRODUCT life cycle assessment , *BUSINESS cycles , *ENERGY consumption - Abstract
This paper presents a model for optimizing the life cycle economic and environmental impacts of a hybrid renewable energy and battery storage system – as energy supply technologies (EST) for off-grid farms. Micro-hydropower and photovoltaics represent the primary renewable energy (RE) sources, with batteries and a diesel generator considered as possible back-up systems. A modified Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) was developed and applied to a case study farm in Southern Spain and provided different EST solutions to optimize a design based on economic (life cycle costing or LCC) and environmental (life cycle assessment or LCA) constraints. The results highlighted that cases with a strong dependence on batteries could achieve minimum costs and lower impacts for climate change and energy resources (non-renewable fuels). In contrast, the optimal system for minimizing the consumption of material resources (metals/minerals) resulted in higher fuel use, which was up to 25% more expensive. The optimal EST solutions used up to 37% of the total energy generated; however, the results were sensitive to energy production-demand distributions. This methodology can help identify the most cost-effective solutions with the lower environmental impacts for decarbonizing the agricultural sector. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF