Hybrid solar-wind-diesel power plant for small islands in Maluku Province

Maluku Province is an archipelagic province consist of 1,340 islands mostly classified as small island and has the total area of 712,479.69 km2 of which 658,331.52 km2 (92.4%) are marine and only 54.15 km2 (7.6%) are terrestrial. This geographic condition causes high insularity and approximately 34% of villages in Maluku are without electricity and it is highly impossible to provide every remote small island with the power supply. Solar and wind penetration into existing diesel systems can be considered as a breakthrough to meet the need for power supply for these remote islands. A techno-economic analysis is applied to perform a design of an optimal hybrid solar-wind-diesel power plant to serve the load of the villages at these remote islands. The hybrid plant can reduce cost about 20% as well decrease of greenhouse gas emissions of diesel generator alone. Based on the result obtained, the villages in Maluku Province particularly those at the remote area are the potential candidate for deployment of the proposed hybrid solar wind-diesel power plant for electricity generation.