| HOMER Energy receives major National Science Foundation Grant |
| HOMER Energy has received a grant from the US National Science Foundation for technology transfer. The grant will be used to develop enhanced versions of HOMER that will accommodate a wider variety of hybrid power systems and better support our global user base. |
| IPCC asks HOMER Community for Input |
| The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is interested in the potential for hybrid renewable power systems to mitigate climate change. Given the worldwide distribution and diversity of the HOMER user community they have asked us to collect peer-reviewed articles on hybrid power systems. Please upload any articles or links to articles that you are aware of to the HOMER user community here. |
| Case Study: Gobabeb, Namibia |
 The Gobabeb Desert Research Station used HOMER to model a hybrid micropower system consisting of a PV array and two diesel generators. The system is designed to serve about 25 buildings including a lab and staff housing, with an average daily energy consumption of 110KWh. Among the goals of the project were high quality, 24-hour power with minimal diesel fuel consumption, maximization of battery life and simplicity of maintenance by a non-engineer. |
| Request for Examples of Sustainable Village Power Projects |
| HOMER Energy has been asked to identify examples of hybrid renewable energy systems on a village mini-grid that are still providing power after three years. This would be a counter to the many examples of systems that were installed without adequate attention to operations, maintenance and other factors affecting long-term sustainability. If you have examples you can share, there are thousands of people world-wide who would benefit greatly from that information.
We invite you to join the HOMER community on Sustainable Hybrid Systems to post observations you have on those projects and participate in our discussion. |
| Walt Ratterman lost in Haitian quake |
 A superstar bringing clean energy to the poorest people in the world, Walt Ratterman was in Haiti working on a series of renewable energy projects for rural hospitals when the earthquake hit. It has taken almost fo weeks, but his remains have finally been found. Walt’s input was incredibly valuable to the development of HOMER. He was featured in Adrian Belic's 2006 award-winning film, "Beyond the Call." His organization, SunEnergyPower International, is accepting donations to continue his work in Haiti. Visit Walt’s Facebook page - Walt Ratterman - Haiti Mission – for more information. Our hearts go out to Walt's family and all the people of Haiti. |
| HOMER Software Tip |
A problem we sometimes see with HOMER files is that users have specified too narrow a "Search Space.' The Search Space is the set of all component sizes you have told HOMER to consider as it searches for the configuration that minimizes total life-cycle cost. If you don’t specify a broad enough range of sizes, HOMER will give you the dreaded “edge of space” warning:
This just means that HOMER isn’t sure it has found the truly optimal system configuration because the least-cost configuration was on the ‘edge’ of the Search Space. For example, say you enter a range of possible PV array sizes and the largest of those sizes turns out to be optimal. Is that the true optimum, or would an even latrger PV array be better yet? You can’t know for sure unless you increase the PV array size enough to make the life-cycle cost start to increase again. When the “optimal” configuration is on the edge of the Search Space and HOMER can’t be sure that it has found the true optimum, it alerts you with the “edge of space” warning. If you click the button beside the warning, HOMER will explain the situation and advise you on how to proceed.
You can avoid such warnings by using an iterative approach to sizing. Start with a very broad, but low resolution Search Space so that you get an initial run without this warning. Then make a second run adding resolution to the Search Space, but only near the solutions that you found to be optimal or interesting on the first run. HOMER won’t re-run a simulation that it already has results for, so this process is much more efficient than creating a high resolution search space for the first run.
by Peter Lilienthal
Do you have a tip for HOMER users? If so, please share it with us in the HOMER users community here |
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