Feasibility study of grid connected photovoltaic system in family farms for electricity generation in rural areas

This paper proposes a feasibility analysis of grid connected photovoltaic energy systems in Algerian dairy farms considering technical and economic requirements and respecting the local specific characteristics and legislations. The aim is to design an optimal solar system satisfying the farms' electric needs for each Algerian region and investigate the feasibility as well as the impact of replacing the existing conventional systems with solar energy systems. Real electricity consumption data from experimental dairy farms are recorded using typical herd size for each region and projected herd size according to the livestock intensification policy followed by the government. The pilot farms are determined to be the farms of the technical institute of breeding ITELV. The electricity consumptions of a set of Algerian family farms, ranging from 10 to 30 milking cows, were analyzed. It is found that the average energy requirements are between 330 kWh/cow/year and 560 kWh/cow/year, which is considerably lower than north European and North American dairy farms consuming up to 2900 kWh/cow/year. The results indicate that the on farm self-produced electricity is able to achieve the energy balance between forecasted photovoltaic generation and farm energy demand with a cost of electricity ranging from -0.008 $/kWh to 0.033 $/kWh. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.