Study The Potential Of Solar, Wind And Micro Hydro Power For Rural Electrification: A Case Of Magna Lege Buna Village

Abstract

Ethiopia is a country with highly increasing population numbers from day to day and the current population number is around 110 million people. From this total population, about 85% are living in rural remote areas, where there are no accesses to the central grid system or not covered by grid extension to date. Until today only About 2% of these areas are accessible to electricity. Specifically, as other Ethiopians, people of Magna Lege Buna village with site‟s location is 7° 58' 28" N latitude and 39° 40' 36" E longitudes uses nonrenewable energy for every daily activity (cooking, milling, lighting, etc.) even though this village is rich with many rivers and high solar intensity and wind forces that can produce a huge amount of energy. The work was begun by visiting the site, collecting data and analyzing those data with the help of HOMER software, sizing of different components, investigating the power producing potential of solar, wind, and micro-hydro turbine of the desired site, energy demand of the village, finding feasible and suitable hybridization for electrification of the site under study. The annual average potential of solar energy of the site is 6.3 k ⁄ , average wind speed at the required hub height of 50m is 5.46 m/s and unganged run off of river has a flow rate 0.21 ⁄ and net head height of 13.99 m. For energy yield estimation, a three-bladed wind turbine of 800kW rated power with a rotor diameter of 48m from Enercon, 335W rating power of solar panel with 21% efficiencies of mono crystalline from sun power and Cross flow of 20 kW shaft output and the turbine will be coupled with a three phases synchronous generator to produce electrical energy about 17.32 kW was chosen.. The overall simulation results indicate that the proposed off-grid hybrid system of solar, wind, and micro-hydro with battery storage would be a feasible solution for electric power generation of a remote village with 740 households with an average of six family members per household and another community service such as the clinic, school, mosque, churches, mill flour, and water pump. The electricity, produced from these hybrid systems will replace conventional energy sources like wood, animal dung and kerosene.