Economics and Optimization Analysis of On-grid Hybrid Energy Systems with Controlled Battery Storage towards Net-zero Households: A Case of Different Solar Radiation Profile Zones

The global clean energy transition goals require commitment from every country. Different locations however present different technical and economic viability for increasing the penetration of variable renewable energy (VRE) resources to meet national targets. This work presents a comparative economic and system sizing analysis of PV/wind/battery hybrid energy systems in two different residential locations and climate zones (Ansen, Netherlands (NL)) and Mpoase, Ghana (GH)) to measure and compare the fraction of self-consumption. The system aimed to achieve net-zero energy transfer using a battery with self-consumption (SC) control. The System Analysis Model (SAM) integrated with a multi-parametric economic model was used for system simulations and sizing. The study found that for the same optimum hybrid system size in two different locations, higher SC and cheaper system costs were achieved when the consumption and generation profiles of the VRE were more closely matched in time. Increasing the battery size increases SC and the system cost non-linearly. However, increasing the PV capacity resulted in a non-linear decrease in the SC, the unit installed cost, and the LCOE. For the same PV size of 5 kW, GH and NL had the highest SC of 0.71 and 0.64 respectively. However, with this fraction, the LCOE of NL exceeded its reference LCOE by 100% as the battery size and the installed cost were 2.5 and 1.5 times more than that of GH respectively. In GH, the highest achievable fraction of SC for return on investment was 0.59 and consisted of a 5 kW PV and 10 kWh battery capacity. This gave a simple payback of 18.6 years at an LCOE of 0.18 €/kWh. NL required an additional 1 kW wind turbine to meet the demand and to make the system financially viable at an LCOE of 0.17 €/kWh and installed cost of 6.6 €/W.