Techno-economic assessment of PV-diesel-battery hybrid systems for poultry farms: A case study in North Carolina

Abstract

This paper presents the techno-economic assessment of PV-diesel-battery hybrid systems for poultry farms via the use of HOMER simulation software. A generic configuration is defined separately for grid-tied and off-grid systems. Major component sizes are then optimized for eight cases with varying utility rates and solar power compensation mechanisms. The case study is based on a farm with three mega-size broiler houses in North Carolina. The results show that after leveraging federal incentives, grid-tied PV investment is profitable only for one case, which has a 20-kW PV as the optimal size and leads to the net present cost $3,200 less than the base case of not using PV. Battery is not yet cost effective at current market conditions. The off-grid hybrid system has $370,000 to $560,000 higher net present cost than the grid-tied systems. The battery price, the PV price, and the diesel price have an ascending order of significance with respect to their impact on the net present cost for the off-grid hybrid system.