Supplying not electrified islands with 100% renewable energy based micro grids: A geospatial and techno-economic analysis for the Philippines

Access to clean energy is required for facilitating sustainable development in remote areas. In the Philippines many small islands are not supplied with electricity although it is aimed to achieve universal electrification by 2022. Here, renewable energy holds a large potential given the abundant resource availability and high costs for fossil fuel. However, a lack of key information for electrification planning prevents the wider deployment of renewable energy. Therefore, this paper presents a combined approach applying geospatial analysis, cluster analysis and energy system modelling: First, we identify not electrified islands. Second, we utilize cluster analysis for pattern recognition. Third, we perform energy system simulations of 100% renewable energy systems combined of solar power, wind power and battery storage. Thereby, we find 649 not electrified islands relevant for our analysis with a population of 650,000. These islands are grouped in four clusters according to population and renewable resource availability. For each cluster we found that cost-optimized 100% renewable energy systems are based on solar and battery capacities with supplementary wind capacities. Generation costs and system designs are most sensitive to variation in battery and capital costs. Allowing short-term supply shortages can significantly decrease costs through smaller capacitiy requirements. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.