Hybrid diesel/photovoltaic systems without storage for isolatedmini-grids in Northern Brazil

摘要

In the Brazilian northwest there are hundreds of small towns thatare not connected to the national power grid. These sunny settlementsare usually supplied by small to medium (<1 MW) diesel generatorsfeeding mini-grids. Many of these isolated communities can only bereached by boat or dirt roads, making diesel supply costly andunreliable. Adding PV (without storage) to displace diesel consumptionduring daytime hours thus appears to be ideal. This paper reports on ahybrid diesel/PV project, where a ~20 kWp thin film PV installation isbeing added to a 54 kW diesel genset operating in northern Brazil. Theimplications of a configuration without battery storage, chosen tominimize equipment and maintenance costs, are discussed