Feasibility Study Of Solar Water Heating System In

Libya
Zakariya Rajab, Mohammad Zuhier and Ashraf Khalil
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering, University of Benghazi
Benghazi, Libya
Zakreia.hassan@uob.edu.ly

Abstract— In Libya, the current energy is produced by fossil
fuel. In the future, as the energy demand will increase
dramatically, due to increasing of the population and to build a
new infrastructure. Libya spire for higher living standard this
can be satisfied through sustained development of using
renewable energy in its electric power markets as a part of their
basic infrastructure. Introducing alternative energy supply is
considered to be promising a superior approach to solve this
problem. For example, solar energy is capable of providing some
or all the power required in the country systems also improves
the environmental problems. The general loads in the country are
classified in eight main types. The residential and the street
lighting are represented about fifty percent of the total load. The
residential loads presents thirty percent of the total load.
Conventional water heaters present a higher percentage of the
energy consumption. Which is represented of around 30% of the
residential sector and 10% of the total energy consumption.
These percentages urge to the importance of establishing a
national strategic plan to replace the conventional water heaters
with the domestic solar water heater (DSWH). The study of the
economic potential of DSWHs in saving electricity, capital cost,
maintenance cost reducing carbon dioxide emissions, will be
studied by using RETScreen software.
Keywords— Libya; Solar water heating system; Solar energy;
Saving electricity, RETScreend.
electricity. It is estimated that Libya has a great potential for
solar energy with a daily average solar radiation ranging from
about 7.1 kWh/m2/day on a horizontal surface in the North to
about 8.1 kWh in the southern region. The average sun
duration of more than 3,500 h per year means it is equivalent
to a layer of 25 cm of crude oil per year on the land surface.
Similarly, wind energy potential is great in many regions in
Libya especially the coastal strip where average wind speeds
range from 6 to 7.5 ms−1 [2].
The current status and the future potentials of renewable
energy applications in Libya show that the power in the
earth’s wind and in solar radiation, which reaches the earth, is
more than sufficient to make significant as well as strategic
contributions to the country’s energy supply. This pushes step
towards the integration of the subjects of renewable energy
and energy efficiency into the national agenda. The
Renewable Energy Authority of Libya (REAoL) has
established a target of 10 % renewable energy by 2025, which
would account for a total capacity of 2,219 MW. Intermediate
targets are 389 MW by 2015, and 1,069 MW by 2020 [3].

I. INTRODUCTION
Libya is a rentier economy where oil and gas account for
98 % of Gross domestic product (GDP), that reveals that the
country has a fairly one-sided economy that heavily relied and
still relies on the occurrence of fossil fuels, that is, oil and gas.
It is the second biggest North African country spreading over
an area of 1.76 million km², located between Algeria and
Tunisia in the west and Egypt in the east, bordering the
Mediterranean Sea in the north, and from west to east Niger,
Chad, and the Sudan in the south as shown in Figure 1.
Almost all its land territory is land area apart from access to
the Mediterranean Sea about 1,770 km of coastline [1].
This is a rich country in renewable energy resources. It has
the potential to produce the equivalent of almost seven million
barrels of crude oil per day in energy. It could generate
enough renewable power to meet its own demand and a
significant part of the world energy demand by exporting Fig. 1. The geographic situation of Libya.
 The residential load forms around 30% of Libya electricity
consumption. The irrational use of electricity has increased
dramatically in the last few years. This will lead to more
consumption for the precious gas and oil [4].
Renewable energy is one of the alternatives that could play
great role especially in Domestic Solar Water Heating systems
(DSWHs) which can create awareness among people and may
help to reduce the irrational use of electricity [5].
This is an one of the area that the Libyan government
needs to consider in order to cut down on energy consumption.
There is a need to use heating from solar technologies and
replace electric heating with solar water heating system
(SWHS) to reduce both wastage of energy and peak load.

Techno-economic aspects of DSWH systems will be

analyzed by using RETScreen software , which can assist the
feasibility of renewable energy based projects in the first place
[6]. It includes all project related details, like initial cost of the
project, solar energy resource availability at the project
location, base case credits, performance of the equipment,
periodic project costs, ongoing project costs, equipment taxes,
effects of energy displaced, credits for emissions reduction,
subsidies, and cost effectiveness in terms of decision making.

Fig. 2. Types and percentage of gas and fuel used in electricity generation
II. THE STATE OF CURRENT ENERGY IN LIBYA
in 2012
The General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) is a
state owned company and is responsible for the generation,
transmission and distribution. Libya has installed twelve
power plants which are capable of supplying 8.347 GW while
the available capacity is 6.357GW [7]. The energy sector
relies on the natural gas, heavy fuel oil and light fuel oil with
the percentages shown in Figure 2. The GECOL increased the
dependence on the natural gas in order to reduce the CO2
emission. The GECOL has difficulties in meeting the
increased electricity demand, One of the most important issues
which is a challenge to the load management engineers in each
electrical energy system is electrical load forecasting. The data
obtained from GECOL is presented in Figure.3. The figure
demonstrates the peak load of the general network in Libya
during the period 2002–2013 with annual increase rate of
about 10%, taking into consideration the drop in consumption
in 2011 due to political instability [8]. The figure also depicts
data about power electrical demand forecasts and expansion in Fig. 3. The distribution of energy consumption among several load types.
production during the period 2013–2020; these last data are
based on strategic studies by GECOL [8].

The energy consumption is distributed among several load
types as shown in Figure.4. The residential load is the most
dominated load with 31% of the total consumed energy. The
street lighting is around 19% of the energy consumption.
While the other 50 % is distributed in commercial,
agricultural, water, Man Made River and industrial [10].
The water heating (WH) is one of the major area of
domestic households energy consumption with around 29.82%
as shown in Figure.4, which mean that WH consumes nearly
10% of total electricity [10]. According to total electricity
generation by GECOL in 2012, which produced about 33,980
GWh [8]. Therefore the annual electricity used for domestic
water heating was around 3398 GWh.
III. THE RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES IN LIBYA
The renewable energy has been used in Libya back to the
seventies, the main applications are for powering small remote
loads such as communication repeaters, rural electrifications,
water pumping and Cathodic Protection for the oil pipelines in
the desert. The latest project was the construction of Al-Fattaih
wind farm at the end of 2010 for production of 60 MW as a
first stage of renewable energy development with project cost
about 184 Million Libyan Dinar With the ever increasing
demands on the energy, the renewable energy sector in Libya
planned a number of projects in the last decade [9].
The proposed projects are mainly solar energy and wind energy
systems, which are the best renewable energy alternatives in
Libya.

Fig. 4. Electrical peak load demand and forecasting. Data source [9].
According to the REAOL the renewable energy share is
expected to reach 10% of energy demand in 2020, which
mainly includes wind energy, Concentrating Solar Power
(CSP), Photovoltaic (PV) and Solar Water Heating (SWH) [4].
According to the report Arab Future Energy Index (AFEX)
[11]. It focuses on the update of the current status of renewable
energy, country programme, national targets, enforced policies
and technologies in the Pan-Arab Region and analyses the
conditions for their advancement in the future as shown in the
Figure.5
Fig. 5. The Result of AFEX Renewable Energy [11].
Most Arab countries allow for some sort of private
participation in power generation activities, and all but one of
the investigated countries have adopted legislation authorizing
IPPs. Libya, is the only country in the region with a fully
closed electricity sector, it has 328MW large-scale state owned
renewable energy project under construction, but having these
projects in operation depends on the political situation in the
country [11].
IV. SOLAR POWER POTENTIAL IN LIBYA
The Geographical location of Libya makes it one of the
countries blessed with high Solar Energy. Solar energy is
believed to be the most important and feasible renewable
energy source in Libya. Libya lies within the most favorable
sunny zone (between 150 N and 350 N). The rain falls is below
150 mm in most of the country. For example, the average solar
radiation in Libya is around 7.5 kWh/m2/day with about 3000
to 3500 sunshine hours per year [4]. The solar radiation in
different cities in Libya is shown in Figure.6.
Fig. 6. The monthly solar radiation in different cities in Libya
V. CASE STUDY: SOLAR WATER HEATING SYSTEM IN
BENGHAZI CITY
Domestic water heating is responsible for about 30% of all
residential energy consumed in Libya which mean that water
heating consumes nearly 10% of total electricity. According to
total electricity generation by GECOL in 2012, which
produced about 33,980 GWh, Therefore the annual electricity
used for domestic water heating was around 3398 GWh.
The use of solar water heaters in place of electric water heaters
will go a long way to decrease the demand on the already
scarce electricity. Also the power used by the electrical water
heaters (EWHs) can be channeled. This means that there will
be a substantial reduction in oil exportation as a result of
electricity usage unless the renewable energy technology is
adopted. The use of clean energy in electricity generation will
also lead to the reduction of carbon dioxide emission to some
extent.
A. Selected region and its parameters
An energy model was developed for a typical house in the
Benghazi City using the RETScreen Software. The weather
data used by the software is given in Table I.
The parameters of the basic scenario are listed in Table II.
This basic scenario considers a typical house with 6 occupants
situated at the Benina/Benghazi city baring alone the full initial
cost of the SWH purchase and installation. Other scenarios can
also be developed for houses with bigger number of occupants
and for different grants/incentives offered by the Government and record the load profile of the whole system. Fluke 1735
during the purchase and installation of the SWH. Power Logger. is shown in figure.7.

TABLE I. BENINA/BENGHAZI WEATHER DATA

Month Air Relative Daily solar Wind speed

temperature humidity radiation – at 10 m
(◦ C) horizontal (m/s)
(%)
(kWh/m2 /d)
January 12.5 76.1 2.87 4.5
February 12.7 73.7 3.87 4.9
March 14.9 68.5 5.18 5.4
April 18.8 58.6 6.56 6.2
May 22.5 56.1 7.26 6.0
June 25.2 56.8 7.92 5.9
July 26.2 66.1 7.94 5.9
August 26.8 67.0 7.26 5.4
September 25.7 63.3 5.96 5.2
October 22.4 66.1 4.55 4.8
November 17.8 70.2 3.26 4.6
December 14.0 73.5 2.63 4.8
Annual 20.0 66.3 5.45 5.3

TABLE II. INPUT PARAMETERS FOR THE SIMULATION

Fig. 7. The Fluke 1735 Power Logger Analyst
Parameter Value
Average number of people per house 06 The measurement was done over a period of 24 hours. The
Occupancy rate 90%
load profile data extracted from Fluke 1735 Power Logger is
shown in figure.8. Based on the measurement, one can
Daily hot water usage estimate 324 L/day
conclude that the average EWH power consumption is around
Hot water temperature 55 ◦C
471.85W.
Collector slope Latitude of location
Miscellaneous losses of collectors 3%
Operating days per week 07
Solar water heater type Evacuated
Gross area per solar collector 5.19 m2
Aperture area per solar collector 2.96 m2
Fr (tau alpha) coefficient 0.376
Fr UL coefficient 1.322
Number of collectors 1
Initial cost 2200$
Storage capacity per square meter 80 L/m2
fuel type Electricity
Seasonable efficacy 85% Fig. 8. The Load Profile of EWH over 24-hours
Electricity rate 0.088 $/KWh
1) Electricity consumption cost: To change the default,
Inflation rate 2%
The electricity cost in Libya is ranging from 0.15$ to 0.20$
Project life 20 years per kWh [12]. Typical The average consume of Electric water
initial cost 2200$ heater is around 11.325 kWh/day. The EWH will consume
Annual O&M cost 20$ 4133.4 kWh per year. The lifetime of the system is selected to
GHG emission factor for natural gas 0.185 kgCO2/KWh be 20 years. For the whole life time of the system, it will
consume 82.668MWh, which makes the fuel cost 14,549$ if
the losses in the Libyan network are neglected. The average
losses in the Libya electricity network are around 30%. Taking
B. Load Profile for a typical household
the losses into consideration the fossil fuel power plants in
Load analysis is an important phase for designing. In order to Libya need to generate 118.097 MWh which cost 20.785$.
investigate the electric water heater's energy consumption, the
direct measurement of electrical load using power
measurement equipment. Fluke 1735 Power Logger Analyst 2) CO2 Emission: Fossil fuel is the primary source of CO2.
was connected to the main power supply of EWH to measure The CO2 emission factor for different types of fuel is given in
Table III [8]. 418 kWh can be generates from One light fuel oil
barrel while one heavy fuel oil barrel generates 500 kWh, and The calculated pre-tax IRR for assets is 25%. The simple and
one m3 of the gas generates 3.1722 kWh. equity payback periods are 8 and 7.6 years, respectively.

TABLE III. CO2 EMISSION FACTOR FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF FUEL

Fuel type Gas Light fuel oil Heavy fuel oil
Conversion 0.185Kg 20518Kg CO2 20764Kg
Factor CO2/KWh /liter CO2/liter

3) A 118.097 MWh can be generates from fossil fuel thia

is need to burn either 113,469 barrels of light oil, 236,194
barrels of heavy oil, or 37228.737 m3. The CO2 emissions of
the road with different types of fuel and generating technology
are given in Table IV. The cost of the CO2 is known as the
"social cost" and it is estimated at 220$ per ton of CO2,
Fig. 9. The result of cumulative cash flow analysis
according to a recent study by Stanford scientists [13].

TABLE IV. CO2 EMISSION FOR THE STREET LIGHTING SYSTEM D. Widespread analysis to all Benina houses
Fuel type Gas Light fuel oil Heavy fuel oil The total of residential household in Benina is around 5000
Conversion 0.185Kg 2.518Kg CO2 2.764Kg units
Factor CO2/KWh /liter CO2/liter
Fuel TABLE VI. COMPRISON BETWEEN EWH AND SWH SYSTEMS FOR 5000
37228.737 m3 282.528 barrels 236.194 barrels
Amount HOUSES
CO2 006,887 113,469 104,128 Electric water heater Solar water heater
emission Kg CO2 Kg CO2 Kg CO2
(EWH) (SWH)
CO2 social
1670$ 27,522$ 25,257$ Capital cost $ 2,200,000 11,000,000
cost
Maintenance
4,000,000 2,500,000
Cost $
Total Cost
TABLE V. COMPRISON BETWEEN EWH AND SWH SYSTEMS FOR TYPICAL 6,200,000 13,500,000
without fuel $
HOUSE
The Electricity
207,850,000 36,375,000
Electric water heater Solar water heater cost $
(EWH) (SWH) Total Cost
214,050,000 49,875,000
with fuel $
Capital cost 220 2200 The gas social
16,700,000 2,925,000
Maintenance Cost $
400 500 The LO social
Cost 275,220,000 48,165,000
Total Cost Cost $
620 2700 The HO social
without fuel 252,570,000 44,200,000
The Electricity Cost $
20,785 7275 Total Cost,
cost 230,750,000 52,800,000
Total Cost (Gas fuel) $
21,405 9975 Total Cost,
with fuel 489,270,000 98,040,000
The gas social (LO fuel) $
1670 585 Total Cost,
Cost 466,620,000 94,075,000
The LO social (HO fuel) $
27,522 9633
Cost
The HO social
25,257 8840
Cost
Total Cost,
(Gas fuel)
23,075 10,560 I. CONCLUSION
Total Cost, In this paper, we propose replacing the electric water
48,927 19,608
(LO fuel)
Total Cost, heating system with solar water heating system. The two
46,662 18,815
(HO fuel) alternatives are compared in terms of the fuel cost, capital
cost, maintenance cost and the CO2 emission. On the other
hand the EWH system in Libya is nonrenewable and
unsustainable and the SWH system is the optimum solution
C. RETScreen results analysis for a typical household because Libya struggles to satisfy the energy demands and it is
The cumulative cash flow analysis result, produced by difficult in mean time to build new power plants.
RETScreen for the basic scenario without incentives and As Libya depends on the oil and gas for electricity
grants, is shown in Figure.9. generation, these will reduce the country revenue when the
load demands increase in near future. Furthermore the
adoption of the SWH system in Libya reducing the CO2
emission. RETScreen was used to investigate the SWH system
in Libya through case study for the 5000 households in Benina
region. It was found that the total energy saving for the Benina
region is around 767,630 MWh. The total saving in CO2
emissions are 44,765 t/CO2 when gas fuels used, 737,548
t/CO2, 676832 t/CO2 for light oil and heavy oil fuels
respectively.

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