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5. Economics of Hybrid PV/Batteries Bank/Diesel Generator System 285

Table 8.6 General Specifications for Operating the Diesel Generator
Initial Cost of 20-kW Diesel
Engine $ 5000.00 US $
Assume 100% load, the diesel 4.7 L/h
consumption
Rated DG power 20,000 W
DE needs 15W40 oil every 3 months 8 L
Cost of 1 L of 15W40 oils with labor $ 6.00 US $

Table 8.7 Summary for Cost of Investment and Operational of DG Only
Total
Yearly Diesel
Diesel Yearly Oil Yearly No. of Total Investment
Cost Cost Cost Operational and Operational
Country (US $) (US $) (US $) Years Cost (US $)
Tunisia $ 5994.24 $ 192.00 $ 6186.24 9 $ 60,676.15
Jordan $ 5740.96 $ 192.00 $ 5932.96 9.5 $ 61,363.14
KSA $ 590.98 $ 192.00 $ 782.98 96 $ 80,166.21

Table 8.8 Cost of 1 L of Diesel in Different Countries
Price of 1 L Diesel in US $
Tunisia $ 0.71
Jordan $ 0.68
KSA $ 0.07

only as shown in Table 8.9. The diesel consumption of the DG of the hybrid energy
system in the period between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. and is only 1696 L compared
with 8443 L when using DG only. After the 9-years period, the hybrid system will be
more economical as it will save money on the cost of diesel and it saves the environ-
ment. If the rules in a country allow the hybrid energy system to feed excess pro-
duced power to the grid, then more saving is achieved and the payback period of
the hybrid energy system would drop down. Note that any PV renewable energy sys-
tem is not practical in KSA because the diesel cost is hugely subsidized in the coun-
try. It is evident that about 100 years are needed for the hybrid energy system to
balance the cost of operating DG only. Thus, the driver to use renewable energy sys-
tems in Saudi Arabia should not be saving money but saving the environment. It is
known that each liter of diesel has 720 g of CO 2 and requires 1920 g of O 2 to
combust. As a result, a 20-kW DG would produce a pollutant of about
620.4 gCO 2 /kWh [30].