Sadat, SA, Faraji, J, Babaei, M, Ketabi, A. Techno‐economic comparative study of hybrid microgrids in eight climate zones of Iran. Energy Sci Eng. 2020; 00: 1– 23. https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.720
Many efforts have been made to increase the utilization of renewable energy resources (RESs) in Iran. This paper aimed to evaluate the techno‐economic performance of an introduced hybrid microgrid (HMG) in eight climate zones of Iran. Therefore, ten cities are selected from the eight climate conditions of Iran. An electricity pricing strategy is also implemented according to the electricity tariffs defined by the Ministry of Energy (MOE) of Iran. The proposed electricity pricing strategy is applied to the HOMER software for investigating the optimal system configuration, RES electricity generation, and the economics of each understudy city. Optimization results indicate that Urmia (in moderate and rainy climate zone) has the least net present cost (NPC) (−5839$) and levelized cost of energy (COE) (−0.0122 $/kWh), whereas Golestan (in semimoderate and rainy climate zone) has the highest NPC (4520 $) and COE (0.012 $/kWh). It is shown that the combination of photovoltaic (PV)/wind turbine (WT)/converter in the grid‐connected operation mode is the most economical configuration. Moreover, the cities with higher potentials of wind speed and solar irradiance have lower NPC and COE. It is concluded that the utilization of the battery energy storage (BES) is technically and economically infeasible for all eight climate zones, even if the stored electricity is sold to the grid. Two sensitivity analyses are conducted to the electricity feed‐in‐tariff (FiT) and solar module price, respectively. The first sensitivity analysis indicates that by increasing FiT, more contribution of RESs is seen, which leads to lower COE and NPC. Furthermore, the two cities of Urmia and Yazd have the highest NPC and COE reductions. The second sensitivity analysis studies the module price impacts on the NPC and COE of each understudy city. It is revealed that the PV module price has a considerable effect on NPC and COE. However, this effect is more significant in some cities such as Bam, where a linear relationship is seen between the module price and economic results (NPC and COE).
ese3.720(1).pdfSadat, SA, Faraji, J, Nazififard, M, Ketabi, A. “The Experimental Analysis of Dust Deposition Effect on Solar Photovoltaic Panels in Iran Desert Environment”,Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments,Vol.47,October 2021, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101542).
Since soiling is a site-specific problem, this paper for the first time performs controlled experiments to determine the characteristics of a dust sample from the desert region of Iran and its impact on the power efficiency of solar photovoltaic modules. Dust characterization experiments are performed using scanning electron microscope, X-ray fluorescence, and elemental mapping. Elemental mapping tests, which have attracted little attention in photovoltaic soiling studies, will help researchers to investigate this phenomenon more accurately. For electrical evaluations, general relationships between losses caused by dust deposition and degradation of photovoltaic output parameters are obtained by testing different dust samples. The elemental results showed that the dust sample is mostly composed of Si, O, Al, and Ca elements. In addition, indoor experiments revealed that dust particles have different shapes and sizes (from 0.4 μm to 31 μm). When the dust density is increased from clean cell to almost dark shading conditions, it was observed that conversion efficiency, photovoltaic normalized maximum power, open-circuit current, and short-circuits current are decreased by 98.2% (non- linearly), 98.13% (non-linearly), 20.63% (linearly), and 98.02% (non-linearly), respectively. Furthermore, the results showed that soiling process has no significant impact on fill factor due to uniform dust dispersion on PV module.
Sadat, SA,Vakilalroaya fini, MR, Hashemi-Dezaki, H., Nazififard, M. “Barrier Analysis of Solar PV Energy Development in the Context of Iran using Fuzzy MCDM Methods”, Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments,Vol.47, October 2021, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101549).
The development of renewable energy systems could be facilitated by appropriate energy policies according to the recognition of major barriers. Iran, with over 1,648,000 sq. km of suitable area and 300 sunny days per year, and over 2200 kWh/m2 of irradiation, has one of the highest potentials for utilization of solar energy on the planet. However, achieving the goals of renewable energy development based on Iranian roadmaps encounter various barriers. On the other hand, there is a research gap for conducting a comprehensive study by considering multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods and qualitative methods under uncertainty in investigating the barriers of photovoltaic developments. By combining Fuzzy MCDM methods and qualitative analysis ones, this study aims to respond to this research gap, particularly for the barriers facing Iran’s photovoltaic energy production development. This paper assesses the barriers based on Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (Fuzzy-AHP) techniques. The Fuzzy-TOPSIS method is also used to determine how it is possible to overcome the challenges. The results imply that “messy economic situation” and “ineffective bureaucracy” are the most barriers hampering the development of photovoltaic energy production in Iran. Moreover, “Economic and financial incentives” and “mitigating bureaucratic efforts for permission approval” are the most effective solutions.
Sadat, S. A., & Nazififard, M. (2020, October). Introducing a Novel Hybrid Mobile Energy Storage System for Vulnerable Community Resilience Support. In 2020 6th International Conference on Electric Power and Energy Conversion Systems (EPECS) (pp. 46-51). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/EPECS48981.2020.9304524
The nomad and refugee communities are considered as one the most vulnerable and the least prosperous population in the world. Meet their basic needs, as well as effective decision-making based on appropriate information to mitigate the shortages, has been long received much attention among practitioners. In this paper, using the state of art knowledge, that is the solar energy, as well as some other sciences; we aim to provide a cost-effective and efficient way to provide microgrid power in order to reduce shortages of nomad and refugee population. The solar trailer is considered one of the ways to use and exploit renewable energies for these communities. In this project, the design for a portable solar trailer is discussed in detail. Indeed, the energy is stored in a solar trailer employing some solar photovoltaic(PV) modules as well as diesel generator which can then be exploited to supply the required power in Battery energy storage (BES) to be used in providing medicines, sanitary water, and connecting to the network in the interested zone. Employing HOMER ® software, the optimized system has been achieved and designed, i.e., once the optimized system obtained in HOMER the interested solar trailer was designed in CATIA ® and prepared for production based optimization results. The solar trailer in this paper incorporates one refrigerator, a water treatment device, 8 solar panels of 400 W type, 12 batteries, a 4-kW generator, etc.
Imanloozadeh, A., Nazififard, M., Sadat, S. A., “An Uncertain Optimal Smart residential Energy Hub Management System for Desert Environment”, International Journal of Energy Research, 2021,https://doi.org/10.1002/er.6991
The main purpose of this study is to develop a sustainable smart energy management system for the desert climate, which aims to reduce energy expenses, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions via finding optimum power output and smart scheduling while considering users' uncertain behaviors. Moreover, the effectiveness of five metaheuristic optimization algorithms is analyzed and reviewed for presented system, which is modeled as a multiobjective function and contains over 1000 variables. The case study is city of Kashan located at the desert area of Iran with hot and dry climate. Presented system is established based on smart residential energy hub and home energy management system. Residential loads for a modern household are appropriately categorized and modelled. Ten different uncertain scenarios for users' energy consumption are simulated within the algorithm with considering users' comfort level simultaneously. Both energy cost and users' comfort deviation for studied multi-energy system are formulated as a multiobjective function with two weighting factors. Our results present a comparison between different cases studied and the effects of uncertain power consumption on energy cost, comfort level, and computing time. Our findings indicate that the presented system with specified weighting factors is able to reduce energy expenses around 50% in different cases. Accordingly, due to a noticeable decrease in energy consumption, GHG emissions from fossil fuels are reduced remarkably considering the fact that only 1% of Iran's power supply is provided by clean energies. Results also illustrate that considering uncertainty has more effect on users' comfort level than energy cost.
