TY - JOUR

T1 - Electric vehicles development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Performance assessment of standalone renewable energy systems for hydrogen refuelling and electricity charging stations (HRECS)

AU - Ampah, Jeffrey Dankwa

AU - Afrane, Sandylove

AU - Agyekum, Ephraim Bonah

AU - Adun, Humphrey

AU - Yusuf, Abdulfatah Abdu

AU - Bamisile, Olusola

N1 - The research funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation ( Ural Federal University Program of Development within the Priority-2030 Program) is gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2022/11/1

Y1 - 2022/11/1

N2 - One of the main setbacks to electric vehicles (EVs) adoption relates to the unavailability of the required charging stations across a jurisdiction. In addition, drawing the required energy of the EVs from a fossil fuel-dominated grid does not only minimize the cleaner benefits of EVs but also puts enormous pressure on an already stressed grid network in electricity-deficient regions like Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Hence, in the current study, six different 100% hybrid renewable energy systems based on powerplants of solar, wind, and biomass have been proposed for meeting the energy needs of 70 and 30 battery and fuel cell electric vehicles, respectively using Ghana as a case study. With the aid of HOMER Pro software and multicriteria decision-making tools, the hybrid system, biogas generator-photovoltaic emerged as the most feasible of the six proposed solutions from a technical, economic, and environmental standpoint. This winning system produces 3.9 GWh/yr and 55.6 tonnes/yr of electricity and hydrogen, respectively. The NPC, LCOE, LCOH, and payback period was recorded as $6.53 million, $0.52/kWh, $9.09/kg and ∼8 years, respectively. Approximately, 4 tonnes of GHG emissions are produced by the HRECS each year, and the amount of CO2 emissions avoided from replacing 100 gasoline vehicles with the proposed EVs has been obtained as 460 tons/yr. With the aid of sensitivity analysis, it became apparent that the feasibility of the proposed systems could improve with improvement in components' efficiencies and lifetime, and reduction in unit costs. The current work has several contributions to the sustainable development goals (7, 8, 11, 13), and could aid in accelerating EV penetration in SSA. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

AB - One of the main setbacks to electric vehicles (EVs) adoption relates to the unavailability of the required charging stations across a jurisdiction. In addition, drawing the required energy of the EVs from a fossil fuel-dominated grid does not only minimize the cleaner benefits of EVs but also puts enormous pressure on an already stressed grid network in electricity-deficient regions like Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Hence, in the current study, six different 100% hybrid renewable energy systems based on powerplants of solar, wind, and biomass have been proposed for meeting the energy needs of 70 and 30 battery and fuel cell electric vehicles, respectively using Ghana as a case study. With the aid of HOMER Pro software and multicriteria decision-making tools, the hybrid system, biogas generator-photovoltaic emerged as the most feasible of the six proposed solutions from a technical, economic, and environmental standpoint. This winning system produces 3.9 GWh/yr and 55.6 tonnes/yr of electricity and hydrogen, respectively. The NPC, LCOE, LCOH, and payback period was recorded as $6.53 million, $0.52/kWh, $9.09/kg and ∼8 years, respectively. Approximately, 4 tonnes of GHG emissions are produced by the HRECS each year, and the amount of CO2 emissions avoided from replacing 100 gasoline vehicles with the proposed EVs has been obtained as 460 tons/yr. With the aid of sensitivity analysis, it became apparent that the feasibility of the proposed systems could improve with improvement in components' efficiencies and lifetime, and reduction in unit costs. The current work has several contributions to the sustainable development goals (7, 8, 11, 13), and could aid in accelerating EV penetration in SSA. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=8YFLogxK&scp=85141748123

U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134238

DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134238

M3 - Article

VL - 376

JO - Journal of Cleaner Production

JF - Journal of Cleaner Production

SN - 0959-6526

M1 - 134238

ER -