Prospects of Hybrid Energy in Saudi Arabia, Exploring Irrigation Application in Shaqra

Mohammad Alghassab*, Zafar A. Khan, Abdullah Altamimi, Muhammad Imran, Fahad F. Alruwaili

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Dynamics in rainfall patterns due to climate change are posing a threat to crop production globally. The core issue of food security is expected to intensify, and improving crop yield using motorized power irrigation mechanisms can help in curtailing the impact of drought and changing weather patterns to meet the crop water requirement. To meet the energy demand of irrigation systems, this paper explores the use of hybrid energy sources, i.e., wind and solar energy, taking Shaqra Saudi Arabia as case study. This paper presents a systematic case study that evaluates crop water requirements for 3 different crops using the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s software CROPWAT 8.0 and converts the water requirement into energy demand to design the water pumping system. The energy requirement water pumping system is used to design a hybrid energy system using HOMER PRO 3.14.4 that can reliably meet the energy demand. The results suggests that, contrary to the common consideration in Saudi Arabia, a hybrid of wind and solar energy proves to be more cost effective and yields a higher amount of energy. The results suggest that a significant reduction in cost can be achieved with a hybrid energy system as compared to a solar PV system only.
Original languageEnglish
Article number5397
JournalSustainability
Volume14
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Funding: This research was funded by the Deputyship for Research & Innovation, Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia for funding this research work through the project number IFP2021-081.

Keywords

  • CROPWAT
  • HOMER PRO
  • hybrid energy
  • irrigation

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