Feasibility Study of Hybrid Energy System Towards Decarbonisation

To combat global greenhouse gas emissions and ensure energy security the role of renewable energy is crucial. Implementation of renewable energy-based hybrid energy system at diesel-energy based remote places is vital for decarbonisation offering beneficial use of underutilised resources. In this study a hybrid energy system design is examined including solar, hydrogen, bioenergy and electric vehicle loads that provides a novel energy system at Tennant Creek, Northern Territorry of regional Australia. HOMER Pro software is used to model, optimize and evaluate the best system combination considering net present cost (NPC) and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Besides, sensitivity analysis is performed considering the reduction of renewable component costs and variation of biodiesel price. Result shows, by increasing the capacity of photovoltaic and battery and adding fuel cell, and biodiesel generator in the carbon-based generator based simulated existing system can reduce the system cost by 19.72 % and the energy cost by 19.70 % offering 68.33 % lower <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\text{CO}_{2}$</tex> emissions. Exclusion of carbon-based generators provided excellent environmental performance with zero <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\text{CO}_{2}$</tex> and sulphur emission, however at the highest cost. Promisingly, the sensitivity analysis at a 50 % reduction of battery cost provided a reduction of this system cost up to 19 % and almost 90 % emission reductions.