Reg. No: F56/37836/2020

Thesis / Project Title: Solar-Diesel-Storage Hybrid Electrical Energy Access System Design and Optimization: Case of UNHCR Sub-Office in Dadaab, Garissa County, Kenya

This research covers the UNHCR Sub-Office in Dadaab henceforth referred to as the facility. The analysis of the utilization of fossil fuels at the facility has proven to be expensive with cumulative costs approximated at as much as $493,853 annually translating to a unit electricity cost of about $0.362/kWh in the years 2020 and 2021. The carbon emissions have also skyrocketed thus increasing the carbon footprint to over 1,084 tCO2/yr. Over 1,158 simulations run by the HOMER software yielded 868 feasible solutions with a preferred hybrid solar PV system capacity of 756-kWp encompassing 443-kWh battery storage and one of the 550-kVA generators already installed at the facility. The system would command a renewable energy penetration of 60% with the remaining energy supplied by the diesel generator. The economics of the proposed solar PV system is attractive for investment with

the simple and discounted payback periods at 5.42 and 6.85 years respectively depicting a short time considering a 25-year lifetime. The simulated LCOE incurs a significant 21% drop from $0.31 to $0.246 for the base and proposed system respectively with a 17.5% IRR and 13% ROI further making a case for the feasibility of a renewable energy hybrid system over the sole conventional diesel power generation. The annual carbon emissions reduction is impressive at 46% reduction.