Abstract
Hybrid renewable energy systems are an alternative to provide electricity in off-grid regions worldwide. This research seeks to compare the techno-economic performance of several HRES scenarios for supplying a load of 720 kWh/day in an off-grid region in Colombia. Then, several steps were involved: (i) zone characterization and electricity demand setting, (ii) proposal of HRES configurations, (iii) experimental biogas production, (iv) simulation and techno-economic assessment of the biogas production process using the Aspen Plus v 14.0 and Aspen Process Economic Analyzer v14.0 software, (v) economic data acquisition of HRES components based on simulation tools or literature, and (vi) simultaneous analysis of all HRES configurations using the HOMER PRO software. The results elucidated the biogas production and combustion as a non-feasible process at lower scales since the raw material availability and biogas yield were the most important constraints. Solar-PV energy was not able to supply the required load due to the low sun radiation and clearness level. The best scenario was the combination of diesel generation with solar-PV energy since the net present cost and levelized cost of energy were 0.89 M.USD and 0.39 USD/kWh. This result was competitive with the current electricity price in off-grid regions (0.33 USD/kWh). As a conclusion, energy transition is not possible using only biogas since the amount of raw materials needed is excessive compared to the waste biomass production of a rural community. Solar energy is postulated as the most promising and fastest option to boost decentralized energy production based on low electricity production costs.