An integrated and optimized framework for hybrid renewable and hydrogen energy systems in the healthcare sector: Economic, technical, and environmental assessment

Reliable and cost-effective energy solutions are crucial for sustaining healthcare facilities, particularly in regions with unreliable grid infrastructure. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring the potential of hybrid renewable and hydrogen energy systems, ensuring energy resilience while optimizing economic and environmental performance. The study comprehensively evaluates integrated hybrid renewable energy systems (IHRES) for healthcare facilities, analyzing six distinct configurations in grid-connected and off-grid scenarios in HOMER Pro software. The configurations range from conventional diesel-only systems (DGen) to advanced hybrid systems incorporating solar photovoltaic (PV), wind turbines (WT), battery energy storage (BES), and hydrogen energy systems (HES). The IHRES is designed and sized to align with long-term planning over a 25-year horizon. The study findings indicate that integrating the PV/BESS/DGen configuration significantly reduces the total net present cost (NPC), achieving a 77.85% decrease compared to the DGen system. Further economic improvements are observed with the PV/BESS/HES/DGen configuration, which lowers NPC by 16.40% compared to the PV/BESS/DGen system. Among all evaluated scenarios, the PV/BESS/HES/Grid configuration emerges as the most cost-effective solution, attaining a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of $0.049/kWh.