Small-scale photovoltaic off-grid energy storage

Is a household-scale PV system environmentally sustainable?

The results suggest that a household-scale PV system integrated within a micro-grid with community-scale wind turbines and Li-ion batteries is environmentally the most sustainable configuration. 1. Introduction As the cornerstone of modern society, access to energy has been linked to improvements in health, education, and social welfare .

Do hybrid solar PV systems reduce capacity requirement?

A reduction in capacity requirement, albeit to a lesser extent, is observed for the solar PV component (55% compared to the stand-alone PV system). More significantly for the batteries, 70% less capacity is required in the hybrid systems compared to the equivalent stand-alone systems.

Are PV systems more sustainable than micro-grids?

Comparing equivalent architectures for single-household and community-scale installations, PV systems are environmentally more sustainable if installed individually in households, while larger turbines in community micro-grids are environmentally better for wind utilisation.

Do energy storage systems improve the operation of diesel generators?

Energy storage systems also improve the operation of diesel generators by reducing the required operating hours by 50% and fuel consumption by 30%. However, they contribute to the impacts significantly, especially mineral resource depletion (up to 88% in home systems and 78% in micro-grid systems).

How much power does a solar PV system produce?

As shown in Table 7, depending on the system configuration, the installed capacity of solar PV ranges from 1.29 to 3.45 kWp, with total annual operating hours of 4380 hr and a capacity factor of 17.9%. The capacity of micro-wind turbines is fixed at 5 kW in all the designs and it generates power for 6860 h/yr, yielding a capacity factor of 15.7%.

What is a hybrid solar PV system?

In the hybrid systems, combining the wind turbine and solar PV, the former provides 77% of the household load and the latter the remaining 23%, based on the simulations in HOMER (see Fig. S1 in the SI). Among the multiple size combinations that are viable, the designs chosen for further analysis are those with the smallest feasible sizes.