World Renewable Energy Congress XI

25-30 September 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE

COST ANALYSIS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR POWER SUPPLY FOR

REMOTE AREA IN YEMEN : A CASE STUDY FOR SOCOTRA ISLAND
+
Saqqaf A. Alkaf, Mohammed A. Muqbel and Salem M. Bin Qadhi

Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Aden, Yemen

smbinghdi@gmail.com+

Abstract
Yemen has vast Renewable Energy Resources ( Solar, wind, geothermal, tidal ) available for energy
generation through renewable energy technologies. Continuous efforts are being in progress by the
government of Yemen with the help of several international agencies, resulting in starting several
renewable energy pilot projects. Most of the earlier published research works on renewable energy
were devoted on data analysis and few dealt with renewable energy applications. In this paper, cost
analysis study of renewable energy application for rural Yemen, is carried out. Yemen territory
includes many islands extending over 2500 km long coast, the largest of which is Socotra Island.
Socotra is an island following province of Hadhramout and considered as one of the most beautiful
tourist area with biodiversity and cultural significant attractions which has been declared as an
environmentally protected island. Socotra enjoys high wind speed in the range of 5-12 m/s and
monthly daily solar radiation ranges from 8 – 18 MJ/m 2 which are considered as high potential for
renewable energy applications. In this study, the Socotra weather data were taken from Metrological
Department, Aden Airport, Yemen. Electrical load data was based on a typical households of the
island. Wind turbine data were taken from manufacturer's catalogues. In conclusion the wind turbine
application in Socotra Island was found to be the most suitable and cost effective than other sources.
This study would be extended successfully to other Islands in Yemen such as Kamaran, Hunaish,,etc.
It is better to use Wind/PV combination system when wind turbine cost is suitable to give low overall
.unit of energy price

Keywords: Wind Energy, Hybrid System, Socotra Island

1. Introduction
Socotra is part of an archipelago, but all the other islands are small. The largest of these are Abdul
Kuri and the Al-Ikhwan Islands. The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95% of the landmass
of the archipelago. Socotra is part of the Republic of Yemen. It is an island following province of
Hadhramout. it has an area of about 3,600 square km and considered as one of the most beautiful
tourist area with biodiversity and cultural significant attractions which has been declared as an
environmentally protected island. It has been described as the most alien-looking place on Earth [1].
Figure 1. Show the map of Yemen and the location of the Socotra island.
The islands stand on coral banks. The interior of the island is dominated by the beautiful and green
mountains called Hajhir, rising up to 1,503 meters above sea level. The Hajīr (Hajhir) Mountains
occupy Socotra’s interior, with narrow coastal plains in the north and a broader plain in the south, the
north is the most inhabited part. The Island has about 70,000 inhabitants (2008 estimate).
The Island suffers from shortage of electrical power supply. The available power supply confined to
the limited diesel or petrol generators. The island remains isolated from the other parts of Yemen
during high wind speed during the months of May up to September, which make transport for fuels
diesel and petrol more difficult. The status of electrical energy production in Yemen rely on Steam
power plants and diesel power plants. The diesel operated power stations constitutes about 50% of the
electrical energy, the rest is supplied by steam power plants. Prices of the electric energy is highly
effected by the increase of the imported diesel fuel.
The significant of installing wind turbines in the Island can efficiently meet the growing electricity
demand, while providing a merits of free and widely available clean source, no air, soil or water
pollution. generation.

WE: Wind Energy 1

 World Renewable Energy Congress XI
25-30 September 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Figure 1- Map of Yemen, and the location

of Socotra island.

Wind power is taking off in a big way

worldwide, in both giant utility-scale
installations and small-scale turbines
intended to power a single home [2].
Remote off-grid dwellers are finding wind
power an excellent supplement to solar
during cloudy weather, and enjoying the
extra freedom that more power input gives, especially after dark or during cloudy weather. In the other
hand falling oil production, rising gas prices, and global climate change will encourage the growing
interest in wind power.
The Island has a good potential of solar and wind energy resources. But till now there has no such
activity to use these resources. HOMER software, has been used to find out the best energy efficient
renewable system for the Island. [3]. Analysis has been done for central wind turbines generators and
wind/solar hybrid system as well as for a single home user of PV system to get the most economical
and technical viable options .
Limited resources of recent measured data regarding the wind potentiality in the island. More data
for the wind potentiality in the island were obtained from meteorological department [4]. All these
various sources of data ensure the potentiality of wind energy in the island. Analysis of these data
declare that, the wind speed is in the range of 6-12 m/s which is considered as a high potential value.

2. Wind Energy Turbine Selections

The monthly mean values for the wind speed for the years (2006-2009) is illustrated in Fig. 2. It is
clear the that the wind speed exceed 12 m/s in the months (July to September). While a minimum
values were recorded in (February- April) months. Based on this data the annual mean speed at
Socotra is found 8.23 m/s.
Homer Software was used to illustrate the behavior of the wind scheme in a typical day time. Figure 3
shows typical wind fluctuations in day time scale using Homer software. While Figure 4. Illustrate the
daily mean of wind speed in a typical day in July.
Table 1 shows the assumption for the load demand for a single household in Socotra. An average
energy consumption of 1400 Wh/day is needed.
In this paper, three different types of wind machines were considered for electrification of Socotra:
small size, two fixed blades, pitch controlled; model Fortis-Boreas. medium size and of big size all
are of models WES 18 and WES 80. These are both twin bladed upwind machines using
computerized yawing systems and power control to ensure maximum energy capture at all times. The
evaluation of the energy output of the three proposed machines has been conducted. Using the given
wind distribution for Socotra and with the help of the characteristics and parameters of a wind
generator.
18
16 2006
2007
14
Wind speed m/s

2008
12 2009
10
8
6
4
2
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

WE: Wind Energy 2

 World Renewable Energy Congress XI
25-30 September 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Figure 2 - Monthly average wind speed in Socotra during 2006 – 2009

Figure 3 - Monthly variation of daily mean speed for Socotra using Homer software

Figure 4 - Daily mean wind speed for July

.
Table 1- Assumption for electricity demand for a family in Socotra Island
Time of
Voltage Power Demand Energy demand
Appliance operation
V AC (Watts) Wh/day
(Hours)
lights 2
240 2x20 6 240
((fluorescent
TV/Radio 1 240 1x60 6 360
Fan 240 1X60 10 600
Refrigerator 1 240 1x100 12 1200
Total 260 2400
The main characteristic parameters of a wind generator are: the cut-in wind speed, Vc , the rated
power, Pr, that is achieved at the rated wind-speed, Vr, and the cut-off wind speed, Vf . Table 2 shows
the main specifications for the three selected wind turbine generators.

Table 2- Characteristics data of the three wind generators

Type 30 kW 80 kW 250 kW
Length of blades (m) 14 18 30
Hub height, (m) 30 30 30
Vc , m/s 2 4 4.4

WE: Wind Energy 3

 World Renewable Energy Congress XI
25-30 September 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Vr , (m/s) 10 12 14
Vf , (m/s) 25 25 25

The average daily and annually energy production, for the three different wind generators is
calculated. The capacity factors , the annual fixed and running cost was also calculated. The 30 kW
generator indicates lower energy cost compared to the other two. Table 3: show the evaluation of the
three different generators.

Table 3- Evaluation of the cost of energy for three wind energy generators
Type 30 kW 80 kW 250 kW
Average daily power supply (kWh) 428 780 2345
Average annual generation (kWh) 156,020 284,738 844,844
Capacity Factor, % 59.4 32.5 38.6
Rate of fixed cost (US $)/year 5111 14,288 28,272
Operation cost (US $/year) 5000 5250 18,023
Total present cost (US $) for life time = 20
202,217 48,450 1,157,385
year
No. of Households utilized 180 330 978
Cost of energy (US $/kWh) 0.086 0.117 0.095

In this analysis, the investment for electrical connections of the households are not included.
Additional what mentions in assumption of demand/household, it is really required to supply
invertors and batteries per consumer to gain continuous electrical supply.

3. Hybrid Options Analysis

A hybrid energy system generally consists of a primary energy sources working in parallel with
standby secondary energy storage units. HOMER software has been used to optimize the best energy
efficient system for Socotra considering different wind – PV combination and comparing with a stand
alone system for a household using PV system . HOMER software is used to simulate the operation of
the a system by making energy balance calculations for each of the 8,760 hours in a year. It performs
these energy balance calculations for each system configuration and then determines whether a
configuration is feasible and then estimates the cost of installing and operating of the system over the
lifetime of the project. The system cost calculations account for costs such as capital, replacement,
operation and maintenance. The solar radiation is approximately constant over the Island, the average
[monthly daily radiation is between 4 to 5 kWh/m2 [5
Analysis shows that the cost of energy (kWh) is low for the system which is the combination of 180
homes. Table 4 shows financial summary of three systems.
The cost of PV module including installation cost has been considered as US$ 5/ W. Life time of the
modules has been taken as 25 years and these are tilted at latitude angle of the site.

For these analysis a FORTIS turbine with a capacity of 30KW has been considered. The cost of the
turbine with tower and installation has been considered as 202,217 US $. The project life time has
been considered to be 25 years and the annual real interest rate has been taken as 4%.

Table 4-Rate of capital cost and operation expenses for three systems

System A:
System B: System C:
small community
Type small community household-sized
sized wind/diesel
sized wind/PV system PV system
system
Capacity 200 W
Wind=30 kW Wind =3 0 kW PV

WE: Wind Energy 4

 World Renewable Energy Congress XI
25-30 September 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Diesel = kW =5 kW
Average daily power supply
471 444 0.738
(kWh)
Average annual generation (kWh) 171,900 162,205 269
Capacity Factor, % 37.7 59.1 15.4
Rate of fixed cost (US $)/year 5211 4241 35
Operation cost (US $/year) 5876 3667 47
Total present cost (US $) for life
288,153 243,338 2470
time = 20 year
Cost of energy (US $/kWh) 0.226 0.137 0.393

4. Conclusion
1. Socotra Island has good potential in wind energy. So, it should take immediate practical steps to
start implementation of pilot wind turbines projects. This is to examine the feasibility of introducing
this technology in the Island and to improve the Island standard of living using pollution free means of
proving electrical energy.

2. It could be summarized from the analysis that it will be better to use wind-PV combination system
for numerous homes instead of single home system. The overall cost of energy would be low if the
turbine cost decreases.

Reference
[1] A. Balfaqeeh (1990) Natural construction for Socotra island, Seminar on Geographical and Economical
Importance for Aden, Aden, Dec. 1990.
[2] ESCWA, Proceeding of the seminar on small-scale solar and wind Technologies for Rural and Remote
Areas, 29 Nov.-3 Dec. 1986 E/ESCWA/86/WG.1/19
[3] HOMER, V – 2.14, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), USA, http://www.nrel.gov/homer
[4] Meteorological data for Socotra Island, Meteorological Department, Aden, Yemen.
Catalogue, Fortis, Windenergy, Netherland (2002).
[5] S.M.Bin Gadhi , M.A.Mukbel, A.H.Algifri (1996) Potential of Renewable Energy in Socotra Island,
Proceeding of 1st International Scientific Symposium on Socotra Island, Aden, 24-26 March 1996.

WE: Wind Energy 5