Exploring the Potential of Solar PV Systems for Sustainable Rural Electrification: A Techno-Economic and Performance Optimization Study of Stand-alone System

Solar PV with battery backup plays a key role in decentralized electricity generation in Remote rural areas, as grid expansion toward this location is not cost-effective. This paper presents a thorough study conducted in Kwalita Village Located in Nigeria, to address the prevalent electricity problem in the socio-economically backward mega communities. Questionnaires were utilized to assess the electricity demand and Socioeconomic conditions while Simulation was done with Homer Pro software to evaluate the technical and financial performance as well as environmental benefits of the deployed solar Mini-grid project in this area. The area possesses an average solar irradiance of 5.49kW/h/m<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>/day with a temperature range of 23.92<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">o</sup>C to 27.14<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">o</sup>C, an electricity demand of 217,550 kWh/day, stand-alone Solar PV system capacity of 91.2kWp and Battery storage capacity of 576kWh which met the demand effectively. Findings showed that the Net Present cost (NPC) of the project is $209,402 with a Cost of Energy (COE) of $0.2280kWh, carbon emission of 177.6kg/year, Renewable Fraction (RF) of 99.8%, a promising Return on Investment (ROI) of 33.4% and a Simple Payback Time (SPBT) of 2.90 years. This system was found to be environmentally friendly as it reduced pollutant emissions by 98.7% which is in alignment with the tenet of Affordable and Clean energy in the advocacy towards the actualization of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).