Feasibility analysis of renewable energy powered tourism island-Hainan, China

The current paper presents a feasibility analysis on a renewable energy dominated power structure in terms of both technological and economic considerations for Hainan Island, China. To determine the optimal system configuration for a hybrid renewable energy system, the software HOMER is used. The assessment criteria include net present cost, cost of energy (COE), and carbon emission intensity (CEI). The modeling results demonstrate that renewable energy dominated power structures can meet the power demand of the island not only in 2010 but also in 2020, despite the almost doubled demand for electricity in 2020 assumed in our model. Thus, building a nuclear power station in this location is unnecessary. The modeling results also show that the COE of the power system decreases from $0.074/kW h in 2010 to $0.051/kW h in 2020 as a result of the declining cost of renewable power equipment. Additionally, CEI can be reduced by 69.2%-74.9% against the current status. Sensitivity analysis shows that the correlation between interest rate and COE is linearly positive. However, the relationship between gas prices and COE is not linearly positive because COE increases significantly faster than gas price does when it is less than $0.24/m(3). A counter-intuitive phenomenon is found from the sensitivity analysis, in which COE decreases with increasing carbon tax. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4767836]