FEASIBILITY OF PV SYSTEMS IN OFF-GRID

SCHOOLS
Mojeed Olawale Muhammad Asif Rayyan Sharieff
Department of Architectural and Department of Architectural and Department of Architectural and
Construction Engineering Management Construction Engineering Management Construction Engineering Management
King Fahd University of Petroleum and King Fahd University of Petroleum and King Fahd University of Petroleum and
Minerals Minerals Minerals
Dhahran Saudi Arabia Dhahran Saudi Arabia Dhahran Saudi Arabia
g202110650@kfupm.edu.sa asifm@kfupm.edu.sa g202114930@kfupm.edu.sa

Abstract— The lack of reliable electricity is one of the primary
challenges for isolated communities, which heavily depend on
fossil fuels such as diesel contributing to an increased carbon
footprint. Conventional grid extension is the preferred mode for
remote area electrification, however, the expansion of the grid
to geographically remote and sparsely occupied rural areas can
either be economically unviable or practically infeasible due to
topographical and economic constraints. The present study
highlights the solar PV integration feasibility for schools
situated on the outskirts of Jizan City in Saudi Arabia that lack
access to electricity by the national grid network. Saudi Arabia
has a high solar power potential which can power up solar
energy systems in remote areas. An energy analysis of a school
building reflected its need for an efficient solar PV system where
an optimized setup was obtained after 320 simulations using
Homer Pro. The estimated cost of the grid extension and solar
PV integration for each school was analyzed to learn that only
8% of the grid expansion cost was sufficient for all the schools.
The opportunity cost of the school’s fuel resulted in more than
700% of the revenue income on export. The utilization of
Renewables such as PV in these schools could generate enough
electricity to power the school during the day with a surplus to
be sold back to the grid.
Keywords— National Grid, Energy, Solar Photovoltaics
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy is the backbone of life in the world where there is
difficulty delivering energy to some isolated places. With
around 770 million individuals on the planet without access
to power in 2021 [1], supplying durable and affordable power
facilities for remote areas is one of the main worldwide
difficulties opposing the world in this century. Although
conventional gridextension remains the best-chosen mode of
remote areas electrification [2], the extension of the
conventional power grid to geographically remote and
sparsely occupied rural areas can either be economically
unviable or practically infeasible.Off-grid power options can
be helpful in such cases.
A. Energy Consumption in Saudi Arabia
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is known to be a major crude oil
producer and owns the biggest oil reserves overall the world
[3], this natural resource has been a major drive in the
country’s economic development, population, and
construction [4]. Due to this rapid increase in population,
construction and the harsh climatic conditions the electricity
demand has increased over the years with a growth rate of
39% between 2011 to 2020, with an average of 3.6% rise
between 2010 to 2020 [5] with the peak demand of electricity
expected to reach 365.4 TWh by 2030 [6].
To satisfy the demands of the KSA's growing population,
2.32 million new residential structures are expected to be
built in addition to what is now available, which will result
in higher energy consumption [7]. As indicated in Figure 1,
the residential sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia now
accounts for roughly 47% of overall power consumption,
followed by the industrial and commercial sectors in the
Kingdom [8]. This is mostly due to the need for air
conditioning during the summer months when electricity
demand is twice as high as during the winter months.
Buildings consume most of the energy produced in the world,
about one-third of total world energy is consumed during the
operation phase. However, during the construction and
demolition phases of buildings are considered the energy
fraction of total energy consumption climbs to 50% [9]. The
construction and demolition phases are a one-time phase
whose energy consumption is relatively smaller when
compared to the operational phase over a long period.
The present demand is majorly met via traditional heavy oil,
diesel, and gas power stations distributed over the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia [10], where the total demand for fossil fuels
for industry, power, desalination and transportation is
projected to rise from 3.4 (million) barrels of oil equivalent
per day in 2010 to 8.3 (million) barrels of oil equivalent each
day in 2028 [11] As the main source of electricity generation
is not only a major cause of environmental pollution through
emissions of dangerous gases but have an impact on the
economy, reducing the exporting capacity of the KSA [12].
Therefore, it is necessary to source for other ways to mitigate
the existing conventional generation of electricity in the
kingdom which would also preserve the environment, and
human health resulting in a better economy.
Figure 1: Electricity consumption in Saudi Arabia by sector 2021

Figure 2: Solar PV potential in Saudi Arabia
B. Solar resources in Saudi Arabia
The Sun Belt is an area between latitude 40ºN and 40ºS, Saudi
Arabia is located within the latitudes 31°N and 17.5°N which
falls within the belt, this location gives KSA the strategic
advantage of a larger concentration area and clear sky making
it most effective for the production of solar energy PV[13].
The sunlight getting to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
produces an average energy estimated to be about 2200
kWh/m2 [14], the average solar radiation in the kingdom
differs with the highest being 7.004 kWh/m2 at Bisha and the
lowest being 4.479 kWh/m2 at Tabuk as shown in Figure
2[15]. Generally, the southern provinces of KSA receive[16]
the highest amount of solar radiation among other provinces
areas such as Nejran, Sulayyil, and Bisha.
The period of sunshine differs between a maximum of 9.4 and
a minimum of 7.4 h/day with an average daily sunshine time
of 8.89 h/day. This is enough to produce a significant amount
of electricity in the kingdom using a PV system [17].
To build an energy program that can meet a considerable
portion of the growing demand and supply of remote areas
by electricity, the government established the King Abdullah
City of Atomic and Renewable Energy 'KACARE' in 2010
whose target capacity by 2032 as follows: - hydrocarbons
60GW, nuclear 17.6GW, solar 41 GW (16 GW from
photovoltaic cells, 25 GW from concentrated solar power),
energy waste 3 GW, wind 9 GW and geothermal 1 GW [18],
so it is essential to start utilizing the energy from another
source. A total of 3.1 GW capacity projects were a part of the
tender in 2019 pushing towards cleaner energy. In 1994 a
project called Saudi Solar Radiation Atlas was executed
about 50 km from Riyadh city in the northwest direction, this
project was a shared research project between the US
Figure 3: Projected Renewable Energy Projects in Saudi Arabia
National Renewable Energy Laboratory and KACST Energy
Research Institute. The project was designed and developed
to meet energy requirements for three villages in the kingdom
where the production of this project would vary from 1 to 1.5
MWh per day, the cost of the project was projected to be
about 18$ million [19].
This led to the King Abdullah University for Science and
Technology developing about 2 MW photovoltaic grid-
connected cells, which is located north of Jeddah province, the
size of this solar plant has 9300 modules, each one of 215 Wp
covering over 11600 m2 of land, and the operations of this
project started in May 2010 and it is proposed to produce 3300
MWh per year and to save around 1700 ton of carbon
emissions. the cost of the solar plant project is estimated to be
about 65 million SR[20].
Another standalone system project was installed on Farasan
island in the southern province of Saudi Arabia, the project
capacity is about 864,000 kW using 6000 solar cells, and the
target of the project is to supply electricity to the whole island,
the project is in operation since 2011[21].
Another milestone solar energy production is in Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia, which is the largest solar parking in the world
located at the head office of Saudi Aramco company (North
Park) the capacity of this parking project was about 10 MW
over 200000 m2 [22].
Having seen this, Solar energy remains one of the biggest
renewable energy sources in this part of the world, many
countries have made efforts in terms of research, investment,
and development in solar energy as a key alternative to
burning fossil fuel[23]. This paper aims to see the possibility
of utilizing the solar source, comparing the effectiveness of
this source to the present situation of schools in Jizan that are
far from the national grid, and subsequently designing the off-
grid solar PV system that provides maximum power
efficiency for schools within these remote areas of the
kingdom, to overcome the high cost incurred by utilizing the
conventional method preserve the environment for the
emissions.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Data Collection
1) Geographical and solar resources Assessment in Jizan
Jizan is the second smallest region in the kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, boarded by the Red Sea coast in the south and
bordered by Yemen further south, it is located between with
latitude and longitude of 16.4, 18 N, and 41, 43 E with a
population of about 1.67 million population according to
General Authority for Statistics 2020. Jizan is one of the a
densely populated areas in the Kingdom where most people
don’t have access to the national grid. Many of these people
rely mainly on centralized diesel generators despite being rich
in solar radiation levels with a monthly average global
horizontal and direct normal irradiation of 168.38 kWh/m2
and 157.12 kWh/m2 respectively. Irradiation levels for Jizan
City are shown in Figure 4. Hence, there is a need to focus on
Jizan as the selected area of study to utilize solar resources.
 Figure 6: Schools mapped in Jizan
Figure 4: Monthly solar irradiation in Jizan

TABLE I. SCHOOLS IN JIZAN

2) Conventional gird data Section
High
The southern parts of Jizan are not fully covered by national Kindergarten Primary Middle
School
grid networks as shown in Figure 5, the grid reaches some parts Male 66 250 158 88
of Jizan with the rest electrified by private diesel generators to
Female 0 233 136 65
meet the people’s energy demands. Though, there are plans to
expand the grid network to more remote areas of the region, Total 66 483 294 153
however, a specific time frame has not been set to meet this Subtotal 996
plan. Hence, leaving many people to rely on diesel-powered
generators for their daily needs. The challenging topography
of Jizan is also among the primary concerns of the national distance to the closest national grid, resulting in the
grid expansion layout. The primary focus of this paper is to identification of remote schools.
aim schools within this region. 2) Building Modeling
B. Analysis Al-Hiffar School was used as a case study where all the
data collected was used to develop a model of this building
1) School data in off-grid areas
using DesignBuilder. A picture of the model is shown in Fig
According to the Saudi Ministry of Education, there are
6 and its basic information is given in Table 2. The
about 1000 registered schools in Jizan. Schools located in the
orientation, elevation, and other site parameters were taken
northern part of Jizan are well connected to the grid, however,
from Google Earth to achieve accuracy during the simulation.
the core remote area in the south has 372 schools without
The weather data for Jizan and the common fabric materials
access to the national electricity. These schools largely
in Saudi Arabia were used for building modeling with a
depend on diesel generators to meet their daily energy
typical eight-hour work schedule. The occupancy schedule
requirements. A general categorization of these schools
and the vacation days were accounted for after adopting a
ranging from Kindergarten to high school shown in Table 1,
typical Georgian school year calendar to shape the operation
For this study, a total of 30 schools were selected for
hours and profile. This divides the calendar year into three
investigation of average energy requirements, the distance
terms with due consideration of 103 days of break within the
from the conventional grid, and the main resource of energy
year for Eid, Summer, and Winter vacation.
and school population as shown in Table 2. The ArcGIS
software with a walkthrough inspection was done was get
school data like the coordinates, footprint area, and the

Figure 5: National grid Network around Jizan Figure 7: Model of School ID 26

 TABLE II. BASIC SCHOOL INFORMATION

Case Study Basic Info

Name of the School Al Hiffar School
Type Primary
Location 19o 43’ N, 42o 52’ E
No. Of Students 272
Distance From The Grid 90 Km
Fuel Diesel
No Of Floors 3 Floors
Area m2 1430.85
Figure 8: Actual Load VS Model Load
No. Of Classes 18
2) Energy Simulation
The electrical components and the number of occupants in After feeding all the necessary data, a detailed energy
each designated area were set according to ASHRAE simulation for the year 2022 was carried out to determine the
standards available from the Designbuilder library except for energy required for this school using the same energy
the HVAC system which had to be specified as a window unit simulation tool (Designbuilder). All the required parameters
for each classroom replicating the original scenario of the were set to achieve the best results by opting for The energy
school. results obtained to be available in segments of hours, days, and
months making it easier to benchmark with the raw data
1) Model validation available. It was seen that June had the peak energy
The need to validate the results obtained from the first consumption of 11,929 kWh, while the lowest was close to
simulation. This was required to achieve accuracy between 0 kWh in July and August due to the summer break. Figure 9
the actual load and model load generated through the Energy shows the monthly energy consumption of the school
Use Index (EUI) for monthly energy consumption. It is accounting for electrical and cooling load during the year
expected that there may be a deviation of the model results 2022. The building uses window air-conditioning units for
from the actual energy load. Minor adjustments were made in cooling which are typically not efficient compared to other
the occupancy schedule of the model with a target limit of 5-10 % cooling systems available in the market. These results were
of the actual consumption. About less than 10% deviation later used to develop an optimized solar-powered system for
was considered acceptable in the subsequent simulation. The this school making it self-sufficient and independent of
largest deviation occurred in May with a maximum of 10% diesel-powered systems.
and the least was in July and August due to the summer break
in the school year. The EUI for the 12 months and their
deviation are shown in Table 3 and Figure 8. 3) Homer Simulation
a) PV system design
A photovoltaic system was designed using HOMER
simulation software for power estimation making the school
self-sufficient. The design and estimate of the entire PV-
TABLE III. ENERGY USE INDEX FOR THE SCHOOL
generator system was based on the data input such as
monthly, daily, and hourly peak load profiles. where the main
Actual Load Model Load components of the system are (the PV panel, generator, and
ENERGY EUI ENERGY EUI Deviation inverter). As shown in Figure 10, The grid Architecture gives
Month CONSUMP % detailed consideration to alternative sources of power for future
CONSUM kWh/ kWh/
2 TION m2 Per/m2
PTION m reference.

Jan 6912 6.16 5702.25 6.56 6

Feb 6485 5.78 6509.29 6.26 8

Mar 5688 5.07 6650.06 5.33 5
Apr 7515 6.7 9320 7.41 10
May 8822 7.86 10602.13 8.66 9
Jun 10305 9.18 11929.2 8.52 8
Jul 0 0 0.00 0 0
Aug 0 0 0.00 0 0
Sep 6857 6.11 8607.71 6.51 6
Oct 7202 6.42 7354.98 6.94 7
Nov 6070 5.41 6472.18 5.9 8 Figure 9: Monthly Energy consumption of the School

Dec 6930 6.18 5924.54 6.66 7

 Figure 10: Solar PV System Architecture
b) Solar Photovoltaic panels
The main component of the system to produce
electricity is the photovoltaic panels which convert solar
radiation to electricity. With an annual average GHI
(Wh/m2/day) of 5500 to 6500 Wh/m2 for this school
locality, photovoltaic panels of monocrystalline cells were
chosen (Canadian Solar Max Power CS6U-340M) with a
capacity size of 50 kW. This was calculated based on the
maximum available space on the rooftop of the school with
an area of about 550 m2. The tilting angle was assumed to be
15 degrees (90% of altitude) with a direction to the south.
Based on these assumptions, the resulting total annual
production of the PV system was 94487 kwh/y and the
monthly production was found to vary based on weather and
solar radiation level according to Homer as shown in Figure
10.
c) Inverter
An Inverter is an important component of the system as it
converts DC to AC generated by the solar PV modules as per
the system requirement to meet most of the appliance’s
demands. An 82 KW converter was selected by a Homer
software optimizer with 95% efficiency with a projection of
15 15-year service period, the inverter costs about 49,000 SR,
with a replacement every 15 years. The output of the inverter
is as shown in Fig 10, particularly wide.
Figure 11: PV & Inverter output
Figure 12: Energy Sold and Purchased from Grid
d) Energy purchased from the grid
Energy generated from the PV alone may not be enough
to meet the demand of the school, there is always a need to get
power from the grid to meet the demand on the other hand
excessive energy from the PV could be sold back to the local
grid.
Figure 12, shows that power up to the average of 60kW, that
can be sold to the grid during the weekends and vacations
which not only generates revenue for the school but also helps
cater to the excessive demand for power when the PV supply
is not enough. With the capital cost of battery setup being
high, it was cheaper to depend on the local grid.
e) Renewable energy penetration
It is seen that a significant amount of energy demand
could be met during the winter period (late November to
March) with the PV system. On the other hand, the PV output
can only meet a little less than half of the load demand of the
schools during the summer period except that there is
excessive supply due to the summer break in August.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Homer software was used to make several simulations for
different sizes of PV, generator, and batteries, where the PV
size was varied from 20 kW to 100 kW with a price of 3000
SR /kW. The converter specifications were varied from 0 to
100kW, at 545 SR/kW. The search space and optimizer tool
in Homer selected the optimal system size among 320
solutions which generated a total cost of 340,500 SR as the
effective cost to establish the PV-local grid-tied system. The
PV system specifications for Hiffar School are showcased in
Table 4 below.
TABLE IV. OPTIMAL DESIGN FOR SOLAR PV SETUP
Components Specifications Capacity
Photovoltaic Panels Monocrystalline Flat Plate Pv 100 kW
Grid Diesel-Powered Local Grid 999,999 kW
Converter System Converter 82 kW
This system covers the primary or operational load which is
about 79073.64 kWh/y where the PV can produce about
186,576 kwh/y and the local grid would be a backup system
in case of any shortage in the production of PV due to weather
conditions or any shutdown reason. Generally, it is seen that
the PV will conveniently take about 80 – 100% of the load
demand across the year, except for April, May, June, and
September where the generator will be used to support the PV
in not more than 30 %.
1) Economic Analysis
a) Cost summary
The cost for the photovoltaic-generator-supported system
which consists of a PV solar panel and inverter tied to the local Figure14: Sensitivity Analysis
diesel generator is 340,500 with the cost of the inverter being
44,700 SR. d) Opportunity cost
b) Capital Cost of PV system The need to compare the cost of saving in Saudi riyals
to other countries when the amount of crude oil sold to other
The cost of the PV-generator supported system for the
countries is important. For this study, the comparison was
selected school (Al Hiffar) was calculated based on a unit of
limited to the United Kingdom and the United States of
area (m2) of the gross floor which goes for about 300 SR.
America. As of April 2022, Diesel is being sold for 1.15 SR/L
Based on the price per meter square, the remaining 29
in Saudi Arabia, and the equivalent of 3.83 SR/L and 7.19
selected schools were calculated in this study. The cost for the
SR/L in the United States and the United Kingdom
PV integration for the 30 schools was compared with the grid
respectively. Figure 15 shows the opportunity cost of
extension cost and the result is shown in Figure 16. It was
exporting diesel used by each selected school if exported to
seen that a sum of 7.8 million SR only 0.5% of the grid
the stated countries.
extension cost was sufficient for the PV integration of 30
The illustration also indicates that exporting diesel to the US
schools. The cost of grid extension was calculated based on
could yield a substantial profit of 6.32 million SR,
the distance and international price of connection to the
approximately a 700% increase. Additionally, if the chosen
national grid which is about 37,500 to 45,000 SR/km.
schools switch from diesel to photovoltaic (PV) systems, an
c) Sensitivity Analysis even higher profit of 11.8 million SR, representing a 1270%
Two sensitivity variables were considered in the system to increase, could be realized. This would not only be of
analyze the optimum type of system, the selected variables environmental benefit but also economic benefit to the
were the national grid extension and PV system in terms of country at large.
cost. The cost of grid extension per/km varied from 40,000 to
50,000 SR/km in steps of 5000 SR/km and the Electric tariff e) Environmental impact
and diesel price were 0.3 SR and 1.15 SR/L respectively.
One of the major reasons for the global call for the use
The results are shown in Figure 14 where the cost of national of renewables is to reduce carbon emissions during the
grid extension will be lower if the distance from the grid to the production and use of fossil fuels. There is a major advantage
selected schools does not exceed 7 to 9 km, the PV system to our health, environment, and planet in transitioning to
will be the most optimal solution for the distance exceeding clean energy. The use of the PV-generator-supported system
the stated distance. This implies that schools in the remote for the school shows that it would reduce carbon emissions
areas of the Jizan province's solution to electrify these remote by more than 90% which is remarkable as shown in Table 5.
areas is a PV-generator-supported system because the It is also exciting to see the reduction in other emissions like
average distance to the national grid is about 65 km. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that also pose a threat to
human life by contaminating the quality of air.

14
12
10
Millions in SR

8
6
4
2
0
Cost of Diesel in Cost of Diesel in Cost of Diesel in
Saudi the UK USA

Figure 15: Opportunity cost on Export

Figure 13: Capital cost of PV vs Grid extension
 TABLE V. EMISSIONS ON IMPLEMENTING 2 SYSTEMS
PV-supported Diesel-powered
Pollutant system Emission local grid Emission
Kg/yr Kg/yr
Carbon dioxide 27080 253,366,244
Carbon
monoxide
0 1,597,081
Unburned
0 69,691
hydrocarbons
Particulate
0 9,679
matter
Sulfur dioxide 117 620,434
Nitrogen oxides 57.4 1,500,288
IV. CONCLUSION
This study was done to determine the feasibility of using
renewable energy to replace the conventional grid in the
remote areas of Jizan province, where the geographic
divergence of the villages and the rugged terrain is one of the
main obstacles to national grid extension.
The economic analysis comparison between the PV-
generator system and grid extension shows that the PV-
generator system in remote areas is the ideal solution for
electricity production due to the high cost of grid extension.
The result of the simulation shows that the use of photovoltaic
panels as the main power production will meet 71% of the
total load demand while a generator as a backup system will
cater for the remaining 29% to meet the total energy demand
of the schools in remote areas.
The system size for the case study was designed by Homer
software based on the daily load profile which has been taken
from the model simulation results by Designbuilder. Homer
suggested a 50 kW PV panel, 50 kW diesel generator, and 85
kW inverter with an initial cost of about 340,000 SR for all
system components. The cost of the system converted to a
unit area is about 300 SR/m2. This result was used as a base
price for all 30 selected schools. In sum, a total of about
1553.85 million SR was required for national grid extension,
whereas only 7.83 million SR could get all the schools
running on clean energy, this huge difference in the initial
cost is the result of the long distance from the grid to these
schools. In addition to this, the economic study indicates that
the grid extension will be feasible if the distance between the
grid and the consumer is less than 7 - 9 km.
Lastly, The exploitation of renewable energy sources in Saudi
Arabia will contribute effectively to reducing the use of fossil
fuel and reduce the dramatic increase of peak load which is
expected to jump over 120 GW by 2030, in addition that the
renewable market will provide many new jobs and contribute
significantly to reduce the danger of environment pollution.
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