Techno-Economic Design of a 100% Renewable House: A Case Study for St. John’s [Project A]

• Main Authors: Elsaraf, Hashem, Rudresh, Sharan Manjunath
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2019
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/14809/; https://research.library.mun.ca/14809/1/Techno-Economic%20Design%20of%20a%20100%25%20Renewable%20House.pdf

Nalcor energy, the developer of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, needs to raise 725.9 million CAD annually in order to stabilize the electricity price in Newfoundland at 13.5 cents/kWh, otherwise, the price is forecasted to increase to 22.9 cents/kWh as consequence of the hydroelectric facility’s financial burdens. This project assumes the worst-case future scenario (22.9 cents/kWh) and carries out the load profiling and techno-economic design of multiple renewable energy sources for a household in St. John’s. The electric and thermal loads for the design house have been simulated using BEOPT. A PV module was selected from a list of 25,000 modules through novel comprehensive methodology. Then a PV system was designed and verified using a combination of Helioscope, PVsyst and HOMER. A shading study was conducted using Helioscope and excel to find the optimum number of modules and their best configuration. Upper and lower boundaries were identified and then the optimum system was selected. The Wind energy system was designed and verified using HOMER, Mathcad and MATLAB after 10 turbines met the inclusion criteria of this study by being certified by Intertek and Small Wind Certification Council. Four Scenarios were created for wind and solar systems in the design house. The results show the feasibility of the three electric load scenarios (A, B and D) and slight unfeasibility of the thermal load scenario (Scenario C).