Modeling & Optimization of Renewable Energy Resources Potential for Lachie rural Village, Ethiopia

Abstract

The vast majority of 100 million Ethiopian populations are living in rural areas where access to modern electricity is difficult. Therefore, grid extensions for those rural societies are expensive and, in some cases, it is impossible as a result of the geographical features, high cost of distribution and the very low load factor. Thus, they are using firewood and kerosene as major sources of energy in cooking, heating and lighting. This study assessed the available potential of solar radiation, wind speed and micro hydro power for rural communities in Lachie Site (N12°1', E39°33.6'), Eastern Amhara region, Ethiopia. An electric load which includes lighting, television, radio receiver, flour mill, stove, water pumping and microscope has been suggested. Searching the market for better and efficient technological products and the better components for the analysis are selected. HOMER simulation tool is used to select the optimal wind-PV-micro hydro hybrid power system configuration based on hour-by-hour data for energy availability and demands. Based on the simulation result for first optimization, the Cost of Energy is 0.268$/kWh.