Design of a Stand-Alone Photovoltaic (PV) System for a Three-Bedroom Apartment in Mubi, Adamawa State, Nigeria.

Abstract

In the world today, electricity is also among the essential basic amenities of every human being because it drives the socio-economic activities of any country. More than 1.3 billion of the populations across the globe are living with low or no source of electricity. The lack of accessibility to electric power to this population brought an existence of a wide gap in current energy sources and this affected the growth of such population mostly residing in remote settlements of developing nations. Electrical energy is a significant feature for the economic and developmental advancement in every nation. Even with the abundance of many sources of energy (conventional and non-conventional sources) around the world and in Nigeria, there are still problems in accessing electricity which could be attributed to its generation, transmission, or distribution. These challenges hinder the socio-economic advancement of a country. About 95 million (55 % of Nigeria's population) Nigerians are living with no supply of electricity and the total power/electricity produced, there is about 30-35 % loss in the generated energy from transmission and distribution. This research studied the possibility of electrifying a three-bedroom apartment in Mubi's high residential layout using a solar photovoltaic system through the adoption of HOMER Software. The parameters/data used in this research work were obtained from the basic appliances usually found in an average household and from works of literature on studies performed on energy utilization in some residential areas in Nigeria, taking into consideration their power ratings, quantity, and solar component prices. These and some design considerations like system fixed capital operation and maintenance cost of ₦ 4,000 per year, project lifetime of 20 years, system fixed capital cost, discount rate of 9 %, average solar radiation data, coordinate of Mubi, among other parameters were applied in the HOMER software for the design, simulation and optimized results obtained. The optimized results indicate that a solar PV array of 5 kW comprising 25 solar panels of 200 W each, 10 sets of 12 V / 220 Ah batteries, and a 5000 VA inverter with charger are sufficient to accommodate the load of 16.086 kWh/day. The cost of energy (COE) with a 100 % renewable fraction is ₦ 410.94 / kWh.