Proposing an Optimal Techno-Economic Scheme for a Hybrid Floating Photovoltaic-Hydro Power Plant

Abstract

The use of solar photovoltaic panels has grown significantly in recent years. Floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) installations open up new opportunities for scaling up solar generating capacity. They can integrate with hydroelectric power plant (HPP) and have significant effects on supplying the electrical loads at different months of the year, especially hot and dry seasons. In this paper, the technical and economic parameters of a hybrid HPP FPV system in “Sardasht” region in West Azerbaijan province are studied using sensitivity analysis, and optimal designs in various scenarios are obtained for different values of the load, water levels behind the dam and equipment cost multipliers. In addition, by performing diverse simulations in HOMER software with more than 50000 studies, an optimal scheme is proposed to serve the maximum electrical load for different water levels in water shortage circumstances. The results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed techno-economic scheme.