Economic Comparison of PV/Wind Hybrid Energy System with different Energy Storage Technologies

In this paper, an economic comparison was performed for a PV/wind hybrid microgrid system with different energy storage technologies designed for a health clinic located in a rural community of Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The main aim of the study is to understand the influence of different storage technologies (i.e. hydrogen, pumped hydro storage and lithium-ion battery storage technologies) on the architecture of a microgrid and the possible effect on the economic viability of the microgrid. Some of the key results reveal that all the storage technologies are feasible to be used as a storage technology. However, microgrid architecture with lithium-ion battery technology is the most economically viable with the net present cost of $74, 609 and cost of energy of $0.847 while the architecture with hydrogen storage technology is the least attractive economically with a net present cost of $206,328 and cost of energy of $ 2.34.