Techno-economic assessment of hybrid renewable energy system: Case studies in Nordic countries

The Nordic countries generate the vast majority of their energy through renewable energy resources. They enjoy extended sunshine in the summer months and moderate to high wind speeds throughout the year, providing good potential in harnessing wind and solar energy. This study focuses on integrating solar and wind energy to supply the electricity demand of a small-scale community in northern Europe. As renewables are inherently intermittent, the hybrid microgrid will be supported by sufficient battery storage units and a backup diesel generator to meet the electricity demand reliably. Techno-economic assessment is utilized to evaluate the cost of energy per generated kWh of electricity based on the lifetime components’ costs. The results will be obtained and compared for different northern European cities to evaluate the potential of solar and wind energy under such conditions. Furthermore, the effect of hydrogen generation, storage, and consumption is explored for Turku, Finland as a representative of Nordic climatic conditions. The results indicate the possibility of off-grid microgrids in the Nordic region emphasizing the pivotal role of wind energy. As the wind speed exceeds 7 m/s, a competitive component price of 0.02 $/kWh is reached. This is while most of Iceland and Denmark’s land enjoy wind speeds of more than 8 m/s and even higher on the off-shore Nordic areas. Although the intensity of solar irradiation is limited at high latitudes, the results have revealed the significance of solar energy during summer months to cover the energy demand by solar panels due to the extended days of sunshine. A hydrogen unit was found to be a promising option to curtail the surplus electricity from renewable energy systems.