posted by System Administrator on 11/15/06

"The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's (IMAR) government has been aggressive in developing renewable energy resources for both grid-connected and off-grid applications. Over the past 10 years, more than 120,000 households have been electrified with small wind generators in the range of 100 to 300 W.

In addition, more than 7,000 small PV systems (total of 120 kWp) have been installed in remote households. However, there are still more than 300,000 remote households, 1100 villages, and 198 townships that are unelectrified in remote rural regions of IMAR.

By the year 2000, the New Energy Office of IMAR plans to install 25,000 remote household systems using wind, PV, and wind/PV hybrid systems and in the longer term a total of 80,000 systems throughout IMAR. The use of subsidies for rural systems is being phased out and commercialization based on market forces is being encouraged. The rural population of Inner Mongolia, consisting of herdsmen and farmers, has among the highest annual income levels of the rural populations in China. Annex I cooperation is assisting the New Energy Office of the Science and Technology Commission in Hohhot in the development and deployment of PV/wind hybrid household systems in Inner Mongolia. Other partners include the Inner Mongolia Polytechnic Institute, the University of Inner Mongolia, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, the Shangdu Machinery Company in Inner Mongolia, and the JiKe Company in Beijing. Renewable Energy Options Analysis- In the first phase of the cooperation in IMAR, the University of Delaware, NREL, and the Inner Mongolia team completed a levelized cost analysis of rural electrification options for several counties.

The analysis compared renewable energy options with conventional gasoline engine driven generator sets based on local renewable resources and costs [10]. Beginning in 1995, NREL, the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing initiated a case study analysis of rural electrification options in IMAR. The project was conducted in cooperation with the Planning Commission and the New Energy Office of IMAR, which are the two key agencies responsible for renewable energy planning. Other participating organizations included the University of Inner Mongolia, the Inner Mongolia Polytechnic University, and several local companies. The case study project involved levelized cost analyses of existing systems in four counties in the central and northern regions of IMAR, including Si Zi Wang, Su Ni Te You, A Ba Ga, and Dong Wu Zhu Mu Qin counties. Solar and wind resource data were collected from the four counties and performance/load data were collected from 10 PV systems, 22 wind systems, and 6 PV and wind hybrid systems, which were in the 22-W to 600-W range. Two sizes of gasoline engine driven generator sets, common for household and ranch use, in the 450 to 500 W range were evaluated for comparison. For the types of systems currently being deployed for stand alone electrical generation in rural areas of IMAR, wind generators are the least-cost option for household electricity in the four counties. Small wind generators in the 100-, 200-, and 300-W size range are manufactured locally in IMAR for the household market. The levelized cost of energy for small PV/wind hybrid and PV systems is higher than the cost of electricity generated by wind systems, but all of these renewable systems options result in a significantly lower cost of electricity compared to gasoline engine generator sets.

Study results show that designing optimized wind/PV/battery-storage hybrid rural household systems depend primarily on the local wind/solar resource mix and on the annual electric power demand for a given household-load. Normally, hybrid systems are more reliable and economical than wind or PV systems alone. The use of small wind/PV hybrid systems for remote-household electricity is attractive because of the complementary seasonal solar and wind resources.

The New Energy Office of IMAR and the Inner Mongolia Planning Commission are developing plans for expanding the use of wind/PV hybrid systems by remote herdsmen's families for household electrification. NREL and the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware are providing technical assistance to these agencies in optimizing the design of such systems. Based on annual income levels, two types of systems are receiving attention. Hybrid systems in the 400 to 500 W range are being developed to serve household loads that include lighting, a color television set and radio, a small washing machine, and a small freezer, requiring approximately 1.6 kWh per day of energy.

Smaller systems in the 150 to 200 W range are being developed for intermediate-income-level households that provide approximately 0.6-0.7 kWh per day for household loads that do not include a freezer or washing machine. A pilot project based on remote-household hybrid systems is discussed below. The results of this pilot project will be fed into the planning process for the larger 25,000- and 80,000-remote-household projects by the IMAR government. A system monitoring component of the project will place data acquisition systems in several households to collect system performance data and solar and wind resource data.

Pilot Projects for Home Based Solar/Wind Systems-
Current cooperation with Inner Mongolia is focused on completing the installation of 240 PV/wind home based systems during 1999. The typical demonstration system consists of: (1) a 100-watt wind turbine combined with 50-70 watts of PV or (2) a 300-watt wind turbine combined with 150-200 watts of PV, with battery storage. These systems are capable of delivering 0.6 kWh/day and 1.6 kWh/day, respectively, with high reliability. The systems provide energy for lighting, color television, consumer electronics, and some discretionary load. Systems of 450-500 Watts (Figure 1) can also maintain a refrigeration load. Food storage by freezing is a major driving force for larger system development, even in colder climates. Summer is very hot in Inner Mongolia which borders on the southern edge of the Gobi desert.

An attractive option for household systems resulting from the analysis and prior research in Inner Mongolia is, PV/wind hybrid systems with battery storage. These systems are more reliable than PV or wind systems alone because of the seasonal wind and solar resources, with wind relatively more available in winter months and solar relatively more available in summer months. Analyses show that wind, PV, and PV/wind hybrid systems are lower-cost options for rural energy systems than fossil-fueled generators."

Source National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL "Inner Mongolia Household PV/Wind Hybrid Systems Pilot Project"