Feasibility Study of a Stand-alone Wind-Solar Hybrid Energy System for Off-Grid Rural Electrification in Sokoto State, Nigeria

The prospect of utilizing wind energy to generate electricity in developing country like Nigeria is very promising owing to high wind speeds in that region. This study investigates the feasibility of a stand-alone wind solar hybrid energy system for off-grid rural electrification in Nigeria a case study of Sokoto State. HOMER software package was used for the analysis of the simulation. Thousands of simulations were carried out to achieve optimal autonomous system configurations for the wind-photovoltaic-diesel generator-battery system. Four optimized scenarios that are considered feasible by HOMER were evaluated. The assessment criteria comprises of the Net Present Cost (NPC), Cost of Energy (COE), amount of CO2 emitted and the Renewable Fraction (RF). Comparisons were made between the four optimized scenarios i.e. (WT-PV-DG-Battery system, PV-DG-Battery system, WT-DG-Battery system, and DG-Battery system). The results indicate that scenario 1, WT-PV-DG- Battery system is the most feasible, optimized, cost effective and environment-friendly system among other configurations. The economics analysis reveals that with scenario 1, $190,768 of the total NPC can be saved. Moreover, the cost of energy, COE for scenario 1 is $0.26/kWh lower than the other three scenarios, the results of the environmental analysis indicates that 36,649 kg/yr (54.8%) of CO2 emitted could be reduced by the system in scenario 1 and 68% of renewable fraction can be achieved