Design and Development of an Integrated Bio-Solar Hybrid Energy System for Sustainable Rural Electrification in Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

Energy supply remains a significant issue for village people in Pakistan, where dependence on existing electrical system and traditional biomass fuels continues to affect energy security, household welfare, and environmental quality. Present study investigates the feasibility of a single house for off-grid bio-solar hybrid energy system for sustainable energy supply in remote area of Sindh, Pakistan, using Karani Village, District Larkana, as a representative case study. Proposed energy system integrates solar photovoltaic (PV) technology for electricity generation with a biogas subsystem utilizing locally available animal dung for cooking and thermal energy purposes. The field survey shows total connected electrical load of approximately 1,595 watts for the single house of village, with an estimated electricity consumption of approximately 9 kWh/day. Village Karani receives favorable solar resources, with an average solar irradiation of approximately 5.5 kWh/m²/day and about 6 h of sunshine/day. Based on the energy data of household assessment, decentralized configuration was designed to utilize solar PV generation for all electrical loads, while biogas was considered for cooking and thermal energy requirements of village house. Current study demonstrates that a decentralized bio-solar hybrid energy system can provide a technically feasible and environmentally sustainable option for village household energy supply in Sindh, Pakistan. Further research involving optimized PV, biogas sizing, energy-storage assessment, life-cycle assessment, pilot-scale field validation is recommended to establish the long-term technical, economic, and environmental performance of the proposed system.