Hybridized off-grid fuel cell/wind/solar PV /battery for energy generation in a small household: A multi-criteria perspective

In this paper, the robust capability of HOMER and Criteria-COPRAS is deployed to explore the prospect of selecting a renewable energy system. The energy system consisting of wind turbines, solar photovoltaic (PV), fuel cell (FC), electrolyzer, hydrogen storage, and battery energy storage is intended to power a residential load in Lagos Nigeria. Based on the economic metric, the results show that the optimal system is a PV-Battery whose total net present cost (TNPC) and initial investment cost are $9060 and $3,818, respectively. However, if the energy systems are ranked based on multiple criteria (economic, technical and environmental aspects), the most preferred of the feasible energy systems is a hybrid PV-FC-wind-battery (TNPC-$10,324, initial cost: $7670). The study results indicate that, for viability in the adoption of hydrogen energy storage as part of the hybrid energy system, the selection metric should be based on more than one criterion.