Performance Assessment of a Solar Photovoltaic and Biogas Hybrid Renewable Energy System Under a Combined Dispatch Strategy

This study investigates the techno-economic and environmental performance of a hybrid renewable energy system integrating solar photovoltaic (PV), biogas, and battery storage for a large-scale abattoir in Lagos, Nigeria.Using HOMER Pro simulations, the research evaluates the effectiveness of a combined dispatch (CD) strategy that dynamically alternates between load-following and cycle-charging modes based on net load conditions and future load forecasting.The abattoir's baseline empirical daily energy consumption of 626.05 kWh/day was scaled to a design load of 2,426.4kWh/day to simulate a robust and long-term operational expansion, which was matched against a solar irradiance of 4.74 kWh/m 2 /day and biomass recovery potential of approximately 15 tons/day.The results based on this scaled design load demonstrate that the CD strategy significantly outperformed the conventional cycle-charging (CC) approach, reducing the Net Present Cost by approximately 24.7% (a saving of $307,127) and lowering the cost of energy to $0.267/kWh.Furthermore, the CD strategy optimized the utilization of renewable resources, with PV contributing 68.7% of the energy mix, and enhanced equipment longevity by reducing the biogas generator's annual run time from 3,178 hours to 1,194 hours.Environmentally, the CD strategy achieves a substantial reduction in CO₂ emissions, emitting only 58.8 kg/yr compared to 152 kg/yr under the CC strategy.These findings highlight the viability of PV/biogas hybrid systems under optimized dispatch control as a sustainable and cost-effective energy solution for agro-industrial facilities in sub-Saharan Africa.