Search

Recent research has focused on the design and sizing of standalone photovoltaic systems. Unfortunately, due to highly fluctuating levels of solar energy and the power supply generated not coinciding with energy demand, high capacity of generation and energy storage systems are required to provide a highly reliable supply. However, a highly reliable system tends to produce high excess energy which needs to be discarded as a dump load, which is proving to be a major concern. For this reason, this paper proposes to use the excess energy for hydrogen production, which will then be sold to local consumers. This paper presents a comparison of optimization design and economic analysis of a standalone photovoltaic with a battery system and a standalone photovoltaic with battery-hydrogen production system using an iterative technique. For the feasibility study of the standalone photovoltaic with a battery and with a hydrogen production system, the proposed minimum hydrogen-selling price is determined by breakeven analysis and is compared to the past references' hydrogen-selling prices and gasoline prices. • Optimization design, modeling, and economic analysis of SAPV without and with hydrogen production system were studied. • Iterative technique was used in optimization process. • Optimization results for SAPVBS and SAPVBHPS were compared. • Breakeven point analysis of the payback period and the return of investment were used to determine hydrogen-selling price. • Theminimum hydrogen-selling price was compared to the past published hydrogen-selling prices and Malaysia's gasoline prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia's renewable energy policies do not cover production from waste, including the generation of biogas from palm oil mill effluent. This paper combines life cycle cost-benefit analysis (LCCBA) and the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to provide new insights into costs and benefits of technologies over the life cycles, and on the basis of this information, asks experts to rank different options to enhance policy. The results show that the continuous stirred tank reactor has a higher LCC of 0.63 Million USD/year, compared to a LCC value of 0.55 Million USD/year for the covered lagoon bio-digester. In terms of cost-benefit, the continuous stirred tank reactor has a higher net present value of 0.46 Million USD/year, higher return on investment of 10.11% and a shorter payback period of 9.9 years compared to the covered lagoon bio-digester system, which has a net present value of 0.22 Million USD/year, return on investment of 7.79% and a payback period of 12.8 years. The continuous stirred tank reactor system therefore emerges as more economically feasible compared to the covered lagoon bio-digester system. On providing this information to experts using AHP, the three top ranked policy options emerged as: i) providing detailed environmental guidelines, ii) standardising technical guidelines for biogas installation and iii) covering the open pond wall using lining. Economic insights and policy opportunities based on this research can be used to inform policy decision making in multiple contexts where biogas plant projects are under consideration, in both Malaysia and globally. • Life cycle cost-benefit analysis (LCCBA) on palm oil mill effluent treatment. • Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) ranks policy options. • Combining LCCBA and AHP offers insights linking economic analysis & policy options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Performance evaluation of GCPV system from monitoring of two years PV productions. • Calculation of PV derating factor from actual PV system output. • Error between simulation and actual performance is reduced using derating factor. • Performance of GCPV system increases 4.8% using optimal tilt angle and orientation. This paper presents the real performance of a 7.8 kWp grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system from a field monitoring at a residential house under the feed-in-tariff scheme. The performance parameters of PV system were assessed based on the two-year energy production in 2018–2019. PVsyst software was used to find the best orientation and tilt angle for the selected area to increase the system performance. Next, the PV derating factor was calculated from the two-day data collection. The derating factor was used in the simulation of the system using HOMER Pro, and the economic parameters for 21 years project lifetime were predicted. The results show that the performance of the installed system was better for 2019 compared to 2018 due to the higher solar irradiance in 2019 and the malfunction of inverter in July to August 2018. The best performance ratio obtained from the recorded data was 75.72% and the average loss was 1.68 kWh/kWp/day. The annual capacity factor and overall system efficiency were in the range of 13%–16% and 10%–12%, respectively. The best tilt angle and orientation was 5° with the increment of annual energy production up to 4.8%. From the simulation, the error between the simulation and measurement results was high when the derating factor was assumed to be 100%. When the value used was based on the calculation obtained from data collection, the annual error was 1.7%, which is acceptable. Thus, the software is considered reliable assuming no component failure in the PV system. From the economic analysis, the annual net profit can be obtained was almost RM 3,000, and the payback period was in the range of 5–7 years. In addition, the installed PV system on the single house has the potential to reduce the CO 2 emission of approximately 7.45 tons/year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]