A powerful checklist for the selection of optimal scenarios between local renewable resources and grid extension using exergy, financial, and social analyses

The main objective of this investigation is to propose a comprehensive decision-making checklist to evaluate the utilization of hybrid renewable configurations in each remote area. By considering the exergetic performance, financial, environmental, and social perspective approaches, the decision-making between the grid extension and the use of local renewable resources is performed, and the optimal solutions are recognized. To create this novel checklist, the methodologies of Geographic Information System (GIS), exergy evaluation, and HOMER Pro software are integrated. The proposed checklist also includes several sensitivity analyses to generalize the obtained findings to other remote villages. To investigate the extension of the central grid based on the geographical analysis, the breakeven point for each village is obtained. After that, by computing the value of the Cost-Effective Index (CEI), the most cost-efficient solar tracker mode could be introduced. For instance, the PV/DG/BG/Bat option with a cost of energy of 0.138 and CO2 emission of 30,917 kg/year is found as the optimum configuration for the village related to cold & dry climate. The overall exergetic proficiency is calculated to be 37.27%, as well as it was determined that about 92% of overall irreversibility belonged to the PV modules. The highest value of CEI is related to the vertical tracker mode (40.17), as well as the breakeven distance is gained as 6.21 km. By employing the vertical tracker system, the overall exergetic efficiency reached 41.31%. Evaluation of the outcomes illustrated that the presented checklist could be a powerful tool for feasibility investigation of applying combined renewable systems and grid extension for each remote rural anywhere in the world. Graphical Abstract