Martin Tsuma

Globally, attention has majorly been focused on pollution and exhaustion of fossil fuels allied to the conventional energy sources. In contrast, the non-conventional energy/renewable energy sources have always been considered clean and environmentally friendly. The non-conventional (renewable) are being preferred because they are believed to be more environmentally friendly. Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs), especially Solar Photovoltaics, have seen many plants being constructed to either supplement the grid or alternatives for those far from the grid. Solar Photovoltaics, wind plants occupy large tracts of land, which would have been used for other economic activities for revenue generation such as agriculture, forestry and tourism in archaeological sites. On the other hand, diesel is perceived a high polluter to the environment. The negative impacts envisaged above slows down the application of Solar PV, wind and diesel hybrid. Still, a modeling tool that can quickly and quantitatively assess the effects in monetary form would accelerate the application of such a hybrid plant. This work will present a developed modeling tool that determines not only the techno-economic impacts but also the environmental impacts in monetary form, for one to be able to assess the viability of a plant in a given region.

The wind , solar diesel based tool (WISOD) model will be developed to help in the following ways: (i) understanding of solar PV, Wind and diesel based power generation and its interactions with the resource inputs, the private costs, externalities, external costs and hence the environmental and social-economic impacts over the lifespan of the plant (ii) aiding investors of Solar PV, Wind and diesel with a tool which has a clear graphical and user interface for detection of the main drivers of the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) (iii) creating an enabling environment for decision-makers aided by a visual WISOD modeling tool which takes into account the financial viability and the environmental impacts of Solar PV, wind and Diesel. WISOD will be a sizing sizing tool for techno-economic analysis. It is mathematically based, capturing all the life cycle costs and its associated ecological burdens. The source codes of the WISOD model will be written in Visual Basic programming while the Database was developed using the Standard Querry Language (SQL). The modeling tool provides a friendly Graphical user interface where the user can do the data input as required.

In general, WISOD will be of great use to investors and policymakers of Solar PV systems, wind systems and diesel energy for drawing alternatives and conclusions based on the best compromise. The model developed will be useful, especially in addressing the trade-offs between environmental impacts, financial impacts, which are all aimed at the improvement of the quality and transparency in the decision-making during deployment of these HRES The quantification of the social-environmental effects of Solar PV will permit for cost accounting assessment of the unforeseen cost incurred when using them for electricity generation.