Design of an off-grid hydro-solar-biogas energy system for sustainable energy supply in rural communities

Renewable energy sources have been identified as the most feasible sustainable energy option for remote rural communities. A sharp decrease of prizes of these renewable energy technologies have made them to be economically attractive. This paper presents an off-grid hybrid energy system for sustainable energy supply in a remote rural community. A hydropower system is already installed in the considered rural community. The research study main objective is to show the advantage of using different renewable energy sources to complement the hydropower system when supplying the community load. The hydropower system is always connected in the system simulation and additional solar PV, biogas generator and a battery bank is included in the hybrid energy system optimization. System optimization is done using HOMER Pro software. The results show that it is feasible to complement different renewable energy sources depending on their availability. The cost of energy for the proposed hybrid energy cost is $0.67 per kWh.