Following a rise in population, load demand is increasing even in the remote areas and islands of Bangladesh. Being an island that is also far from the mainland of Bangladesh, St. Martin’s is in need of electricity. As it has ample renewable energy resources, a renewable energy-based microgrid system seems to be the ultimate solution, considering the ever-increasing price of diesel fuel. This study proposes a microgrid system and tests its technical and economic feasibility in that area. All possible configurations have been simulated to try and find the optimal system for the island, which would be eco-friendly and economical with and without considering renewable energy options. The existing power supply configuration has also been compared to the best system after analyzing and investigating all technical and economic feasibility. Sensitivity and risk analysis between different cases provide added value to this study. The results show that the current diesel-based system is not viable for the island’s people, but rather a heavy burden to them due to the high cost of per unit electricity and the net present cost. In contrast, a PV /Wind/Diesel/Battery hybrid microgrid appeared to be the most feasible system. The proposed system is found to be around 1.5 times and 28% inexpensive considering the net present cost and cost of energy, respectively, with a high (56%) share of renewable energy which reduces 23% carbon dioxide.

Recently, renewable energy resources (RESs) have been utilized to supply electricity to remote areas, instead of the conventional methods of electrical energy production. In this paper, the optimal design of a standalone hybrid RES comprising photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine (WT), and biomass sources as well as an energy storage system, such as a hydro-pumped storage system, is studied. The problem of the optimal sizing of the generating units in the proposed energy system is formulated as an optimization problem and the algorithms heap-based optimizer (HBO), grey wolf optimizer (GWO), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are applied to achieve the optimal sizing of each component of the proposed grid-independent hybrid system. The optimization problem is formulated depending on the real-time meteorological data of the Ataka region on the Red Sea in Egypt. The main goal of the optimization process is to minimize the cost of energy (COE) and the loss of power supply probability (LPSP), while satisfying the constraints of system operation. The results clarify that the HBO algorithm succeeded in obtaining the best design for the selected RE system with the minimum COE of 0.2750 USD/kWh and a net present cost (NPC) of USD 8,055,051. So, the HBO algorithm has the most promising performance over the GWO algorithm in addressing this optimization problem.

Photovoltaic (PV) systems encounter substantial losses throughout their lifespan due to the different derating factors of PV modules. Those factors mainly vary according to the geographical location and PV panel characteristics. However, the available literature does not explicitly concentrate on the technical and economic impact of the derating factors within the PV system. Owing to that necessity, this study performs a comprehensive analysis of various PV loss parameters followed by a techno-economic assessment of derating factors using the average value on a grid-connected and optimally tilted PV system located in Hatiya, Bangladesh. Some criteria linked to the derating factors such as PV degradation and ambient temperature are further explored to analyze their impact on the aforementioned power system. Simulation results show that PV power generation would vary around 12% annually, subject to a 10% variation in the derating factor. Again, a 10% difference in the derating factor changes the net present cost (NPC) by around 3% to 4%. The system provides the best technical performance concerning annual PV production, power trade with the grid, and the renewable fraction at a higher value of the derating factor since it represents a lower impact of the loss parameters. Similarly, the financial performance in terms of the NPC, levelized cost of energy (LCOE), and grid power exchange cost is found to be lower when the derating factor value is higher.

We present the design of a photonic crystal fiber which promises to yield very large optical nonlinearity $∼151W−1km−1$ at $1.55μm$ wavelength. The fiber possesses two zero dispersion points whose locations can be tuned by varying the air hole diameter and hole pitch. The fiber dispersion is anomalous between these two zero dispersion points and its value is moderate. The fiber has been used to numerically simulate optical supercontinuum (SC) generation using low power pump pulses of 50 fs duration at a $1.55-μm$ wavelength. At the end of 15-cm fiber, SC broadening of about 1200 and 1700 nm can be achieved with pulses of 1 and 5 kW peak power, respectively.

Slow light propagated through a photonic crystal with a nematic liquid crystal-filled cavity has been simulated and presented. Both slow and fast modes propagate in the waveguide. Design efforts were made to adjust the group velocities of the propagating modes. Numerical studies show that the nematic liquid crystal provides designers an additional degree of freedom to tune the device by using external perturbations such as applying heat or electric field. Comparative studies have also been done to see the performance of the devices built in two different material platforms (silicon and InP). The device can be used as an economic and efficient functional materials system for building robust integrated photonic devices that have the ability to slow, store, and process light pulses.