An open-source optimization tool for solar home systems: A case study in Namibia

An open-source optimization tool for solar home systems : A case study in Namibia

QC 20170130
Solar home systems (SHSs) represent a viable technical solution for providing electricity to households and improving standard of living conditions in areas not reached by the national grid or local grids. For this reason, several rural electrification programmes in developing countries, including Namibia, have been relying on SHSs to electrify rural off-grid communities. However, the limited technical know-how of service providers, often resulting in over- or under-sized SHSs, is an issue that has to be solved to avoid dissatisfaction of SHSs’ users. The solution presented here is to develop an open-source software that service providers can use to optimally design SHSs components based on the specific electricity requirements of the end-user. The aim of this study is to develop and validate an optimization model written in MS Excel-VBA which calculates the optimal SHSs components capacities guaranteeing the minimum costs and the maximum system reliability. The results obtained with the developed tool showed good agreement with a commercial software and a computational code used in research activities. When applying the developed optimization tool to existing systems, the results identified that several components were incorrectly sized. The tool has thus the potentials of improving future SHSs installations, contributing to increasing satisfaction of end-users.

Holmberg, AkselMälardalens högskola,Framtidens energi(Swepub:mdh)oi (author)
Pettersson, OscarMälardalens högskola,Framtidens energi(Swepub:mdh)oi (author)
Klintenberg, Patrik (author)
Hangula, A.Namibia Energy Institute, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia (author)
Araoz, Fabian BenaventeKTH,Skolan för kemivetenskap (CHE),School of Chemical Science & Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 42, Stockholm, Sweden(Swepub:kth)u18k680h (author)
Zhang, YangKTH,Kemiteknik,School of Chemical Science & Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 42, Stockholm, Sweden(Swepub:kth)u1zafljf (author)
Stridh, BengtMälardalens högskola,Framtidens energi,ABB AB, Corporate Research, Västerås, Sweden(Swepub:mdh)bsh01 (author)
Yan, JinyueKTH,Mälardalens högskola,Framtidens energi,School of Chemical Science & Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 42, Stockholm, Sweden,Energiprocesser,Mälardalen University, Sweden(Swepub:kth)u1iddezs (author)
Mälardalens högskolaFramtidens energi (creator_code:org_t)

In:Energy Conversion and Management: Elsevier BV130:15, s. 106-1180196-89041879-2227

By the author/editor: Campana, Pietro ...; Holmberg, Aksel; Pettersson, Osca ...; Klintenberg, Pat ...; Hangula, A.; Araoz, Fabian Be ...; show more...; Zhang, Yang; Stridh, Bengt; Yan, Jinyue; show less...

About the subject

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY: ENGINEERING AND ...; and Mechanical Engin ...; and Energy Engineeri ...

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY: ENGINEERING AND ...; and Environmental En ...; and Energy Systems

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