Electrification and renewable energy nexus in developing countries; an overarching analysis of hydrogen production and electric vehicles integrality in renewable energy penetration

As the world continues to fight against climate change, renewables have emerged as an imminent solution, however, a model that can help (developing) countries to effectively migrate to a renewable energy-based power sector is limited in literature. In this study, a comprehensive electricity generation analysis based on an hourly time-step is done in a bid to solve to electrification crisis in developing countries. This study aims to present the feasible pathways with which sustainable electrification can be achieved. This is done by considering the financial feasibility, environmental sustainability, and technical viability of different technological combinations. In comparison to existing literature, this study is novel as the integration of both renewable energy sources and a fossil fuel source is analyzed. With Nigeria being the study area, the integration of five renewable energybased technologies namely; offshore wind power plant, onshore wind power plant, solar photovoltaic system, concentrated solar power plant, and hydropower plant as well as pumped hydro storage system is considered within the scope of this study. Based on the results of the analysis, out of the ninety-nine different combinatory scenarios modeled, the most viable solution with the use of renewables and natural gas is the combination of natural gas power plants, on-shore wind power plants, and solar photovoltaic systems. This requires a large capacity installation (32,500 MW of natural gas power plant, 12,000 MW of solar photovoltaic plant, and 7000 MW of on-shore wind power plant) as well as a total annual cost and an investment cost of $ 22B and $ 48.7B. Furthermore, solving the poised problem based on renewable energy technologies will only require the combination of on-shore wind power plants, hydropower plants, solar photovoltaic system, and pumped hydro storage system. The integration of plug-in battery electric vehicles and hydrogen production will help maximize the electricity produced from the renewable energy-based power systems. This will also reduce the overall carbon emission from the country at large. Beyond providing feasible scenarios and plans to tackle the existing electricity production, guidelines on steps (not to take) to tackle the electrification problem are embedded in this study.