Mali Commercial Offgrid

Softwares

MWh/yr

$ 0

Thousand

Hours

Softwares

MWh/yr

$ 0

Thousand

Hours

Softwares

MWh/yr

$ 0

Thousand

Days

Solar, Tesla, Design, Energy, Mali Commercial Offgrid, Best, Designed by Rikesh Mathew, Linkedin.

LOCATION

Location

RN 8, Bougouni,
Mali, Africa

Co-ordinates

Lat: 11.3865
Lon: -7.3911

Elevation

340 m
.

Contraints

Scenario

To Design a Solar-Genset hybrid to replace the current Genset standalone system. To lease this new hybrid system at a fixed fee for 20 years and transfer ownership after lease contract is fulfilled. The target is to cover maximal load with the solar – renewable share and to minimise the use of Diesel Generator system. This work is executed to reduce present electricity bills.

Load Assumptions

The Load details of the area is provided on an hourly basis.

Time	Houshehold	Small Shops	Religious Centers	Public Offiices	Public Lightning	Total
0	42.71	0.47	1.18	2.58	0.18	47.11
1	42.71	0.47	1.18	2.58	0.18	47.11
2	42.71	0.47	1.18	2.58	0.18	47.11
3	42.71	0.47	1.18	2.58	0.18	47.11
4	40.43	0.47	1.18	2.58	0.18	44.83
5	64.04	0.47	1.18	2.58	0.18	68.44
6	64.04	0.47	0.00	2.58	0.18	67.26
7	14.40	0.47	0.00	2.58	0.00	17.45
8	14.40	0.47	0.00	2.40	0.00	17.27
9	19.72	53.10	0.00	2.40	0.00	75.22
10	19.72	53.10	0.00	2.40	0.00	75.22
11	5.32	53.10	0.00	2.40	0.00	60.82
12	5.32	53.10	0.00	2.40	0.00	60.82
13	5.32	54.72	0.00	2.40	0.00	62.44
14	5.32	54.72	0.11	2.40	0.00	62.55
15	5.32	54.72	0.00	2.40	0.00	62.44
16	5.32	54.72	0.11	2.40	0.00	62.55
17	5.32	54.72	0.00	2.40	0.00	62.44
18	42.71	54.72	0.00	2.40	0.00	99.83
19	72.29	56.27	1.18	3.23	0.18	133.14
20	72.29	56.27	1.18	3.23	0.18	133.14
21	72.29	16.18	1.18	3.23	0.18	93.05
22	42.71	16.18	1.18	3.23	0.18	63.47
23	42.71	16.18	1.18	3.23	0.18	63.47

Financial Assumptions

End Customer Revenue Assumptions

Project Lifespan

20 Years

Discount Rate

7 %

OPEX Cost

$ 13,000

Diesel Cost

$ 1.086/L

Inflation Rate

3 %

Total Connections

250

Connection Ramp-Up

Year 1

40%

Year 2

80%

Year 3

100%

Tariff & Fees

One-Off Connection

$50

Monthly Fixed Fee

$0.38/kWh

Load/Generation Profile

Fig. 1: Hourly Load Profile (kW)

The Load profile is constructed using Table 1 on a Stacked Area 2D Chart.

Fig. 2: Hourly Generation Profile (kW)

The Generation profile is simulated using PVsyst for specified location assuming no shading obstructions and is scaled up as necessary.

Fig. 3: Load/Gen Profiles (kW)

The Orange area within Fig. 3 which is not shaded is energy that is produced by the system but left un-utilized.

Fig. 4: Energy Used from PV & Genset (kW)

Clearly, no matter how large you upscale the use of solar, you cannot cover electricity during the night when solar radiation is not available. The electricity when solar ration is too low or absent will be provided by a Diesel Generator.

Financial Model

I want to make an apples to apples comparison, so when we do compare with the hybrid system, it seems fair. The basis of the current scenario is that it is fully reliant on Genset – Diesel Generator. The energy used by the community will have to be modelled as if the ramp up connections are uniform for both cases, Year 1 – 40%, Year 2 – 80%, >= Year 3 – 100% for a total of 250 connections.

This will also render the total energy exported from Solar to be a fraction of the total energy produced for the first two years. Doing the calculations in the above said method will ensure that the savings made are not hyper inflated to show benefits to the Hybrid Side.

Current Scenario

A couple of things will have to be found:

Energy Density for Diesel (Fuel for Genset) – 0.4 L/kWh
How much Fuel is required to deliver required Energy
Cash Flow from using Standalone Genset Unit.

Future Scenario

A couple of things will have to be found:

The amount of useful energy generated from installed PV Solar and energy supplied as backup from Genset.
How much Fuel is required to deliver required Energy
Capital Cost Involved with Installation of Solar
Cash Flow from using Standalone Genset Unit.

Savings & ROI

It is clear from the above scenarios that the hybrid system clearly outperforms the Standalone – Genset system in terms of an economics perspective. To find the total savings, the difference between Cumulative cash returns of both scenarios are found. A whooping $3.17 Million is saved as a result of implementing the system. A respectable ROI of 31% is found year-on year.

Optimisation

Well how did I come to the conclusion of using a system with a peak power output of 275 kW. This wasn’t a random choice. Optimisation of cumulative cash return was done, keeping in mind the clients best interest.

Fig. 5: Power Optimisation for least CCR

Interested to know more?

A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is a power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to convert the output from direct to alternating current, as well as mounting, cabling, and other electrical accessories to set up a working system.

It may also use a solar tracking system to improve the system’s overall performance and include an integrated battery solution, as prices for storage devices are expected to decline. Strictly speaking, a solar array only encompasses the ensemble of solar panels, the visible part of the PV system, and does not include all the other hardware, often summarized as balance of system (BOS). As PV systems convert light directly into electricity, they are not to be confused with other solar technologies, such as concentrated solar power or solar thermal, used for heating and cooling.

PV systems range from small, rooftop-mounted or building-integrated systems with capacities from a few to several tens of kilowatts, to large utility-scale power stations of hundreds of megawatts. Nowadays, most PV systems are grid-connected, while off-grid or stand-alone systems account for a small portion of the market.

Operating silently and without any moving parts or environmental emissions, PV systems have developed from being niche market applications into a mature technology used for mainstream electricity generation. A rooftop system recoups the invested energy for its manufacturing and installation within 0.7 to 2 years and produces about 95 percent of net clean renewable energy over a 30-year service lifetime.[1]:30[2][3]

Due to the growth of photovoltaics, prices for PV systems have rapidly declined since their introduction. However, they vary by market and the size of the system. In 2014, prices for residential 5-kilowatt systems in the

United States were around $3.29 per watt,[4] while in the highly penetrated German market, prices for rooftop systems of up to 100 kW declined to €1.24 per watt.[5] Nowadays, solar PV modules account for less than half of the system’s overall cost,[6] leaving the rest to the remaining BOS-components and to soft costs, which include customer acquisition, permitting, inspection and interconnection, installation labor and financing costs.[7]:14