Application of energy balance and MCDM approach to the selection of hybrid renewable energy systems for agricultural application

Abstract

Most rural areas still deal with unstable electricity, despite their advancements. The feasibility and significance of integrating Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES) in Nigeria's agriculture industry were investigated in this study. HRES offers a means of supplying energy for agricultural activities in a way that supports ecological preservation, economic feasibility, and sustainability. The use of renewable energy to power a typical Nigerian farm facility was considered. A key element of this study is energy sizing the process of determining the optimal configuration and capacity of renewable energy components to match the specific energy demand of the agricultural facility. This ensures that the energy supply is neither overdesigned nor underpowered, thereby improving system efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. In this study, aside from the economic criterion, technical and environmental criteria were integrated to re-assess the ranking of a hybrid renewable energy system. To reach a logical conclusion, different multi-criteria assessment were adopted in the study. The multi-criteria assessment includes Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Situation (TOPSIS), Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) and Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) methods. The multi-criteria assessment was employed for a multiple criteria selection of the optimal energy system. A comparison between the different multi-criteria assessment methods were examined. The findings revealed that the Energy Alternative 1 (EA1) is ranked the most preferred energy alternative in the TOPSIS method and ranked 8th and 9th in the EDAS and ARAS methods respectively.