Development of typical meteorological year for massive renewable energy deployment in Togo

Renewable energy (RE) penetration assessment and the development typical meteorological year (TMY) for five cities are considered together in this study. Thus, an integrated method is utilised encompassing RE status assessment and the Sandia method to generate the typical meteorological months of TMY. TMY and long-term data (LT) are then compared as well as a PV system of 3kWc output using TMY and LT under statistical errors. Until 2020 only 11.27% out of 360.02 MW capacity in power demand was RE (hydro and solar). LT and TMY are close for all the towns with a better closeness for Sokode. The latter predicts PV system performance within 2% of the LT in all the sites. More investment has to be put in RE sector because of its potential: 5.27 kWh/m2/day of mean solar radiation, 1238.21 mm of average annual precipitation and 7 m/s of mean wind speed at 50 m above the ground.

Automated summary

This study combines renewable energy (RE) penetration assessment with the development of typical meteorological year (TMY) for five cities. An integrated method is used to assess the RE status and generate TMY using the Sandia method. The TMY and long-term data (LT) are compared, and a statistical error analysis is conducted for a 3kWc output PV system using TMY and LT. The results show that only 11.27% of the power demand capacity was achieved through RE until 2020. The TMY and LT are close for all the towns, with better accuracy for Sokode. The PV system performance predicted by TMY is within 2% of the LT for all the sites. The study highlights the need for more investment in the RE sector due to its potential, including high solar radiation, average annual precipitation, and mean wind speed.