This work aims at developing, optimizing and controlling a hybrid solar microgrid for rural electrification and heat supply in sub-Saharan Africa. The considered system includes PV panels, Parabolic Trough Collectors, ORC and LPG generator, as well as battery and thermal energy storage. A special focus is paid to the co-optimization of the thermal and electrical load satisfaction since it can improve the overall energy efficiency of the system. To that end, different sub-component models are developed: - A building model to predict thermal loads of a health clinic in rural communities of Lesotho.- A microgrid model built by interconnecting the subcomponent models.- A rule-based control strategy, dispatching heat and electrical powers of each component to cover the demand while minimizing the fuel consumption.- A particle-swarm optimization of the microgrid under different cost assumptions.For the studied community of Ha Nkau in Lesotho, the determined optimal system infrastructure is composed of PV (66 kW) and batteries (262 kWh), and the optimum control strategy achieves a levelized cost of electricity of 0.203 USD/kWh. Fuel consumption is mainly due to the burner, which supplies most of the thermal load together with CSP (66 m2) and TES (86 kWh).
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