environments Article Comparison between Three Off-Grid Hybrid Systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Diesel Generator and Battery Storage System) for Electrification for Gwakwani Village, South Africa Miriam Madziga 1 ID , Abdulla Rahil 2,* ID and Riyadh Mansoor 3 1 Faculty of Technology, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK;
[email protected] or
[email protected] 2 Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD), De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK 3 Engineering College, Al-Muthanna University, Samawa, NA, Iraq;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +44-116-250-6848 Received: 12 March 2018; Accepted: 2 May 2018; Published: 8 May 2018 Abstract: A single energy-based technology has been the traditional approach to supplying basic energy needs, but its limitations give rise to other viable options. Renewable off-grid electricity supply is one alternative that has gained attention, especially with areas lacking a grid system. The aim of this paper is to present an optimal hybrid energy system to meet the electrical demand in a reliable and sustainable manner for an off-grid remote village, Gwakwani, in South Africa. Three off-grid systems have been proposed: (i) Photovoltaic (PV) systems with a diesel generator; (ii) Photovoltaic systems and battery storage; and (iii) Photovoltaic systems with diesel generator and battery storage. For this analysis, different size of photovoltaic panels were tested and the optimal size in each scenario was chosen. These PV sizes were 1, 0.8, 0.6 and 0.4 kW. The optimization between these sizes was built based on three main objectives.