Feasibility assessment of distributed generation systems in Sagar Island, West Bengal, India.

Energy is one of the basic needs of socio-economic development of an area. The conventional method of electricity generation and grid-connected transmission and distribution system is expensive for the remote rural areas of India, resulting in lower per capita energy consumption. Grid connectivity or establishing new power plants using conventional energy sources is more difficult and expensive in the islands. The depletion of conventional energy sources is also another reason to explore alternative energy sources. Regardless of the cost and depletion of conventional energy sources, environmental issues are of greater concern on the islands. The pollution due to conventional energy sources destroys the biodiversity and ecological health of an island. The aim of the present study is to examine the distributed generation system using different renewable energy sources from the available meteorological data of the largest island in the Sundarbans deltaic complex, West Bengal, India, viz. Sagar Island. The vast number of renewable energy sources available in this island have been studied and the possibility of electricity generation is discussed. Moreover, the possible per unit cost is also estimated using levelized cost of energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]