Technical Design and Economic Investigations for Reducing CO2 Emission considering Environmental Protection Agency Standards by Employing an Optimum Grid-Connected PV/Battery System

Abstract

Pollutant emission is one of the most important problems the world faces. Using sustainable energies is among the best solutions which can be employed to reduce CO2 and other pollutants as in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards. In this study, a case study region located in the south of Iran, including 100 households, is studied to find practical methods of investment to partially replace the required energy by renewables where the total emission is confined to the EPA standards. The solar irradiant of the region is 5.36 kWh/m2/day which causes high energy consumption (3000 kWh/day). If the government invests $495705, which is equal to the social penalty that has to be paid for emissions in 20 years, a 230 kW PV with a vertical tracker can be implemented to reduce 36% of the total emission that will be produced through the current system. The payback period for the proposed system will be around 11 years. Using an optimized hybrid system instead of a system without any renewables modeled in HOMER software in which the initial capital is limited reduces the cost of energy (COE) and the total net present cost (NPC) by 16% and 11%, respectively. The COE and NPC for the current system without any renewables are 0.121 ($/kWh) and 2.28 M ($), respectively. Although the acceptable Renewable Fraction (RF) is about 55%, using 38.5% RF can significantly fulfill the EPA standards and consider the plan's economic and executional conditions.