ENGG2500 Project: Analysis of Sustainable Energy Mix for Scone

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This project report analyzes the feasibility of implementing a hybrid energy system in the Scone region of the Upper Hunter Shire Council area in Australia. The proposed energy mix comprises solar photovoltaics, wind energy, and fossil fuels, with an expected production ratio of 6:3:1. The report utilizes HOMER Pro software to determine the optimal and feasible energy mix, considering carbon emissions and economic comparisons. The introduction discusses the importance of sustainability and the increasing demand for energy, particularly in rural areas. The project site is Scone Airport. The report explores the potential of wind and solar energy in the region. The design model outlines the components used in the hybrid energy system. The report also includes an executive summary, introduction, project site reconnaissance, proposed energy mix details (wind, fossil fuel, and solar PV), design model specifics, results, economic comparisons, discussion, feasibility analysis, electrical summary, conclusion, and suggestions for future improvements. The report analyzes the environmental, cultural, financial, and ethical impacts of the design and proposes a hybrid energy system connected to the national grid to ensure reliability.

ENGG2500 - Sustainable Engineering Practice
Energy Systems Project
authors names,
student numbers,
and date

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Contents
Executive summary..............................................................................................................................3
Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 3
Project Site reconnaissance.......................................................................................................... 4
Reason for site choice..................................................................................................................... 5
Proposed energy mix........................................................................................................................... 5
Design model.......................................................................................................................................... 8
Results................................................................................................................................................ 11
Compare Economics...........................................................................................................................13
Discussion.......................................................................................................................................... 13
Feasibility analysis of the project..................................................................................................14
Electrical Summary............................................................................................................................ 14
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................. 16
Future improvements....................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................... 17
Table 1 showing the climate of the area............................................................4
Table 2 scone airport plan...............................................................................5
Table 3 homer pro model................................................................................ 8
Table 4 wind resource variation retrieved from homer model...............................9
Table 5 grapgh for solar GHI monthly variation..................................................9
Table 6 monthly temperature variation for the are obtained from meterioligal sitse
................................................................................................................. 10
Table 7 showing homer pro optimization progress............................................11
Table 8 summery of total energy production per year.......................................11
Table 9 monthly Energy demand for the community........................................11
Table 10 grid rates for all..............................................................................13

Executive summary
The paper focuses on analysing the feasibility of implementing a hybrid energy
system at scone region, upper Hunter Shire council area. The Energy mix will
comprise of three energy sources: solar photovoltaics, wind energy and fossil fuel
energy. The expected energy production ratio of this sources is 6:3:1. The Grid will
supplement the system in case of low production. Surplus Energy will also be
connected to Grid; hence the system will be connected to the national Grid. Homer
pro software will be used to analyse the optimal and feasible energy mix for the
region, with carbon gases emission among other economic comparison for the
proposed model.
Introduction
For several years, sustainability has been used to define the need to
carry out operations while maintaining resources or to impose non-harmful
outcomes as induced by human operations. According to the Brundtland
Commission, sustainability has also been described as meeting the present
human requirements without revoking or rendering future generations
unable to meet their requirements from the funds available (Brundtland
Commission, Our Common Future 1987). There should be no confusion
between the fundamental problem of resource depletion and social and
economic characteristics1.
Technological advancement, coupled with increase in population has
resulted into increased demand for energy. Most of the energy techniques
that currently we have been non-renewable sources, which are bound to
depletion in the near future. Additional, in ordinary set-ups, the rural areas
tend to experience limited challenges in regards to provision of electricity.
On contrary, one of the major challenges faced by technology is the
provision of reliable and cost-efficient power solutions in both the remote
and rural areas. Taking our case study for instance: upper hunter shire is
basically composed of few towns on the upper hunter such as Aberdeen,
scone, Merriwa and Murrurundi with a number of villages including but not
limited to Blandford, Gundy, Bunnan, Wingen, Cassilis, moon a flat, and
Ellerston. It has an increasingly growing population as from the census
records; however, the total population is still relatively low: fifteen thousand
people as per the 2016 census. The town is governed by town council. Our
case study focuses on a request to design a system that would be able to
meet the energy demands of the residence of scone town. The town has an
elevation of 216 m, with the weather values being: 9 ° C, North Wind 3
km / h, 89% humidity. Its climatic conditions are: Summer temperatures
average 31.6° to 16.9° and winters 16.5° to 3.4°. The mean annual rainfall
1 I Iddrisu & S Bhattacharyya, "Sustainable Energy Development Index: A multi-dimensional indicator for measuring
sustainable energy development", in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 50, 2015, 513-530.

is 616mm. (BOM data). In terms of the inhabitant’s occupations, agriculture
and fishing and forestry is the major practice conducted by the persons, with
mining and construction also being practised in the region?
These conditions thus give us the insight that we can practice both
photovoltaic method of harnessing energy, as well as wind energy, due to
the elevation of the place. When both systems are integrated together, they
form a hybrid system. When the hybrid system is connected to the grid, it is
regarded as a hybrid-on grid system, which ensures that there is reliability
of power through.
This paper provides an overview of the renewable hybrid electricity (HRES)
schemes. This sort of scheme reflects the current requirement for the
provision of a fresh source of electricity as a source of such demanding off-
select electricity. As stand-alone electricity generation systems in distant
regions, hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) are increasingly common
owing to progress in the field of renewable energy techniques and ensuing
increase in oil goods prices. Two or more renewable energy sources are
generally used as a hybrid power scheme, together to improve the system
efficiency and equilibrium of energy consumption.
Globally, the standards for micro grid optimisation has been known as
homer. By definition, this is a computer model which makes it easier for the
optimisation of hybrid micro grids for the renewable sources of energy,
either connected to a large grid or remotely located.
Project Site reconnaissance
The proposed site for the implementation of the hybrid sustainable project is scone
Airport.
Table 1 showing the climate of the area2
2 Bom.gov.au, "Climate statistics for Australian locations", in Bom.gov.au, , 2019,
<http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_061089_All.shtml> [accessed 31 July 2019].

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Table 2 scone airport plan
Reason for site choice
Over the past, the Council has sold private individuals and companies some of the
original airport land. It is recognized that this is accomplished to increase resources
for the airport operational deficit. As a consequence, commercial aviation
businesses and a variety of aircraft operators now own plots of property on the
road / taxiway. As air-side accessible properties at an airport are always considered
to have prime importance because such lands are usually very restricted, when lost
by private sale to the airport, these lands will almost never be substituted if extra
requirements for airside growth are to be met. The placement of airfields in private
ownership has established a limit for the growth of airflows for potential use for the
hangars, aircraft car parks, traffic lanes and taxiways in the event of the Scone
Airport. Some personal lot holders now own property to keep free of obstacles in
accordance with aircraft security norms, while some have built their own access to
the airport by taxiway.
Proposed energy mix
The overuse of fossil fuels has resulted to worldwide warming and pollution of the
atmosphere. In latest years, interest in the new NRE scheme has risen in solving
these issues. In specific, the zero-energy building has been actively introduced with

photovoltaic, solar thermal, fuel cell and heating systems from the soil. Because the
original NRE system investment costs are very costly, a workability survey must be
conducted from the view of the life cycle. This research was therefore designed to
establish the method for the development of the NRE scheme in an optimal design
construction. Four steps have been taken in this research: (I) the establishment of
fundamental system-installation data; (ii) the selection of main performance factor
variables; (iii) the making feasible system installation alternative and (iv) the
selection of the optimal system, taking account of environmental and financial
impacts. The suggested method could allow the final decisionmaker in the early
development stage to determine readily and precisely the optimum design of the
NRE schemes based on financial and environmental effectiveness. The method may
also apply to any other NRE scheme and can be expanded in the worldwide setting
to any other nation3.
The following are the possible Energy solutions that can be implemented in scone
area.
1. Wind power
2. Fossil fuel
3. Solar photovoltaics
4. Electrochemical storage
5. Pumped hydro storage
6. Hydro turbines
The proposed energy systems to be used in the region were as follows.
Each of this energy sources have been discussed as follows
1. Wind power
Wind energy is electricity produced by utilizing the wind. Wind energy is one
of Australia's most important sources of renewable energy. In 2018, the
complete electricity demand in Australia (227.8 TWh) amounted to 7.1 (16.2
TWh) and renewable energy production accounted for 33.5% in Australia. As
of December 2018, the installed wind energy capacity was 5,679 megawatts
(MW) and an additional 19,602 MW were suggested and committed to the
Australian energy industry. There were 94 wind farms, most of which had 1.5
to 3 MW turbines in Australia at the end of 2018. Furthermore, 24 projects
with an installed combined capability of 6.130 MW have either now been
under development or are committed to economic closure in 2019. The wind
power asset potential in NSW is generally excellent, yet this potential has
remained to a great extent undiscovered. The NSW Wind Atlas demonstrates
that a significant number of the locales with great potential for wind ranches
are arranged on the western side of the Great Dividing Range. While the
breeze is likewise solid in waterfront territories, wind homesteads are
probably not going to be worked there because of existing private
advancement and national park zones. NSW likewise has a broad power
3 J Li, "Optimal sizing of grid-connected photovoltaic battery systems for residential houses in Australia",
in Renewable Energy, vol. 136, 2019, 1245-1254.

transmission organize, giving moderately great power framework access for
new wind ranches.
As of March 2015, there was 625 MW of wind power introduced in NSW. As of
May 2019, there was 1493 MW of wind power introduced in NSW.
To gauge open mentalities to wind cultivates, the NSW government
overviewed 2000 individuals and 300 organizations in provincial NSW in late
2010. Around 80 percent of respondents said they would emphatically bolster
wind cultivates in their region. Support dropped off to some degree if a
breeze homestead was proposed more like an individual's home yet 60
percent still upheld wind turbines inside two kilometres of their home.
Around 13 percent of individuals studied, many matured more than 65, said
they didn't bolster wind control.
2. Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels originate from organic matter based on carbon. They produce
greenhouse gases by generating electricity. Gas is often referred to as a' cleaner
energy source' because less than half of carbon emissions from coal can be
emitted. On the other side, renewables are not carbon-based substances. They
come from sources, such as the sun, the wind and the water that nature continually
recharges. A major difference between fossil and renewable energy sources is that
renewable energy does not generate greenhouse gases for electricity production.
Renewable sources are often referred to as' green energy,4.
3. Solar photovoltaics
Sun based power in Australia is a quickly developing industry. As of March 2019,
Australia's more than 2 million sun powered PV establishments had a joined limit
of 12,035 MW photovoltaic (PV) sunlight-based power, of which 4,068 MW were
introduced in the first a year. In 2019, 59 sunlight-based PV ventures with a
joined limit of 2,881 MW were either under development, built or because of
begin development having achieved monetary conclusion. Sunlight based
represented 5.2% (or 11.7 TWh) of Australia's all out electrical vitality
generation (227.8 TWh) in 2018. Feed-in taxes and sustainable power source
targets intended to help sustainable power source commercialisation in Australia
have generally been in charge of the quick increment in Australia's sunlight-
based limit.
Australia. Australia has been universally condemned for delivering next to no of
its vitality from sun-oriented power, regardless of its huge assets, broad daylight
and in general high potential.
4 About energy, "Fossil Fuels In Australia - Origin Energy", in Originenergy.com.au, , 2016,
<https://www.originenergy.com.au/blog/about-energy/fossil-fuels.html> [accessed 31 July 2019].

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Design model
Hybrid energy system has been modelled to efficiently optimize the price and size
of parts depending on the current maximum load for the scone region. The wind
speed, loading profile, price and size of the system parts examined in the following
parts are discussed during the design of the solar energy scheme.
Table 3 homer pro model
Model Components
These represents the components that were included in the design model. Each
component has been discussed as shown.
Photovoltaic panels
parallel series Solar PV modules are linked to form a power supply. The solar panels
generate electricity when the sunrays hit them. Installation and substitution costs
of a 1 kW solar power system amount to approximately $5,000 and $3,000
respectively. The duration of a PV is 20 years5.
Photovoltaic modules use Sun's light power (photons) as the photovoltaic impact to
produce electricity. Most modules use crystalline silicon wafer or thin-film cells.
Either the layer top or the back layer is the structural part (carrying load) of a
module. Mechanical harm and moisture should also be shielded against cells. Most
modules are stiff, but semi-flexible modules are also accessible depending on thin
film cells. Electrically connecting the cells to each other in sequence.
A PV cabinet is connected and its output interface is located on the back of the solar
panel. Outside, most photovoltaic modules use MC4 connectors for simple
weatherproof links to the remainder of the scheme. You can also use the USB
energy interface. Modules electric links are produced in sequence for the required
voltage or, at the same time, for the required present (amperes). The cables that
remove the electrical current from the modules may be made of silver, copper or
other transient non-magnetic material. In the case of partial module shading,
bypass diodes can be incorporated or used externally for maximizing module output
still illuminated. Some unique solar photovoltaic modules include concentrators,
where light focuses on larger cells through lenses or mirrors. This allows for cost-
effective use of cells at elevated cost per unit region (for example gallium
arsenide).
Solar panels also utilize the structure of the panel using metal frames made up of
sleeving element, brackets, reflecting forms, and troughs.
Convertor
5 N Bizon, "Energy harvesting from the PV Hybrid Power Source", in Energy, vol. 52, 2013, 297-307.

The power flow between the AC and DC bus is retained by a converter. The
standard load is DC, but diesel-generated energy is AC. The converter in this
scheme is 1500kW in size. The original price of capital, substitutes and
maintenance costs are $2000, $1500 and 20 respectively6.
Batteries
100kw lithium Ion battery, 48v Dc supply, solar rechargeable batteries used
Table 4 system design model 7
Wind resources
The wind resources for scone region was obtained from Australian Meteorological
website. This resource has been presented as follows.
6 M Raoufat, A Khayatian & A Mojallal, "Performance Recovery of Voltage Source Converters With Application to
Grid-Connected Fuel Cell DGs", in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 9, 2018, 1197-1204.
7 M Deshmukh & A Singh, "Modeling of Energy Performance of Stand-Alone SPV System Using HOMER Pro",
in Energy Procedia, vol. 156, 2019, 90-94.

Table 5 wind resource variation retrieved from homer model
Solar resources
The resources used to find optimized energy solutions for the area were as given
below8.
Table 6 graph for solar GHI monthly variation
8 E Fertig, "Simulating subhourly variability of wind power output", in Wind Energy, , 2019.

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Table 7 monthly temperature variation for the are obtained from meteorological sites
Solar irradiance (SI) is the force generated by the wavelength of the measuring
instrument per unit (Watts per square metre, W / m2) from the Sun in the form of
electro-magnetic radiation. The radiating energy that has been emitted into the
environment (joule per square metre, J / m2), during the period of the solar
radiance, is often integrated over some time. Sun radiation, solar exposure, solar
insolation or insolation are the so-called integrated solar radiations.
After atmospheric absorption and spreading irradiance can be assessed on or on the
Earth surface. Space irradiance is depending on the sun's range.
Results
As simulation was run as shown below

Table 8 showing homer pro optimization progress
The results from the simulation were as presented below.
Table 9 summery of total energy production per year
Component Production (kWh/yr.) Percent
Grid Purchases 44,611,030 100
Total 44,611,030 100
Table 10 monthly Energy demand for the community
Month
Energy
Purchased
(kWh)
Energy Sold
(kWh)
Net Energy
Purchased
(kWh)
Peak Demand
(kW)
Energy
Charge
Demand
Charge
January 0 0 0 12,070 $0.00 $0.00
February 0 0 0 10,516 $0.00 $0.00
March 0 0 0 12,528 $0.00 $0.00
April 0 0 0 14,205 $0.00 $0.00
May 0 0 0 15,642 $0.00 $0.00
June 0 0 0 16,782 $0.00 $0.00
July 0 0 0 17,208 $0.00 $0.00
August 0 0 0 15,903 $0.00 $0.00
September 0 0 0 14,541 $0.00 $0.00
October 0 0 0 12,830 $0.00 $0.00
November 0 0 0 12,645 $0.00 $0.00
December 0 0 0 11,321 $0.00 $0.00
Annual 0 0 0 17,208 $0.00 $0.00