Tecno-Economic Analysis for the Adoption of Large-Scale Renewable Microgrid Systems in Island Communities

The use of renewable energy sources to meet the demand of large consumers has been increasing over the last few years. The current American energy load is being met with a mix of about 60% fossil fuels, 19% nuclear, and 21% renewables. However, isolated American communities, the landscape is a lot different. For example, the island of Hawaii meets its energy consumption with an energy mix of 64% petroleum and oil imports, 6% coal, 24% solar and wind, 3% geothermal, and others. Because of the high reliance on imports for energy generation in isolated communities, there has been interest in the adoption of higher efficiency and renewable energy sources. This push allows for the communities to have a higher level of energy security and has the potential to reduce the cost of energy generation. This study seeks to model the techno-economic effects that the adoption of renewable sources would have on isolated communities, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. This is done by modeling local energy loads and adding generation sources, treating them like a microgrid with no export or import options. Solar is to be added in the form of PV panels and wind as onshore turbines. Adding storage to the mix affects the techno-economic and allows for the reduction of curtailed resources whenever the renewable generation becomes excessive. The modeling is performed using PyZ, an in-house developed software used for techno-economic analysis for different levels of renewable energy generation, including the use of load timeseries.