David Simonson. Techno-Economic Analysis of PV-Diesel-Battery Hybrid Systems for Poultry Farms in North Carolina. (Under the direction of Dr. Weimin Wang)The increasing demand for chicken and egg production in the US has led to more poultry farms being built as the industry grows. North Carolina is the 4th largest state for poultry production and the poultry industry contributes more than 40% of North Carolina’s total farm income. For many poultry growers, energy cost is their second highest expense, right behind the house mortgages. Cutting utility bills via renewable energy generation on site is important to increase the profitability of poultry growers. This study intends to perform a techno-economic analysis of using PV-diesel-battery hybrid systems in poultry farms. The techno-economic analysis is conducted via the use of HOMER simulation software. HOMER utilizes user inputs for various system components to simulate, optimize, and conduct sensitivity analysis to find the most economical solutions. In this work, the electric load profile is based on the actual metered power with 15-minute intervals for a poultry farm in NC. Typical meteorological year data are used for solar radiation and ambient air temperature. A generic configuration is defined separately for grid-connected systems and off-grid systems. Major component sizes are then optimized using HOMER for different cases that vary with the utility rate structure (e.g., block rates and time-of-use rates) and solar power compensation mechanisms (i.e., net metering, net billing, and buy-all and sell-all). For grid-connected systems, the results show that battery is excluded in the optimal system configuration, which indicated the use of battery is not cost-effective in grid-connected systems at present because of the high battery cost. The utility rate and solar power compensation mechanism play determinant roles on the profitability of PV investment. For the case of EnergyUnited (an electric cooperative in North Carolina) which offers a low rate at ~4.7 ¢/kWh and the net metering option, the smallest PV size is always selected and the net present cost (NPC) is higher than the current farm operation without the use of PV, which indicates that PV investment is not profitable. However, for the case of REMC (another electric cooperative) which offers a high rate at ~8.05 ¢/kWh, PV investment is profitable if net metering is the compensation mechanism and the block rate structure is used. For the off-grid PV-diesel-battery hybrid system, the optimal system configuration consists of a 250-kW PV array, a 394-kWh battery system, and a 161-kW converter along with the 100-kW diesel generator, which yielded an NPC of $782722, and the off-grid hybrid system has a much higher NPC ($370,000 to $560,000) than the grid-connected systems. The results of sensitivity analysis show that for grid-connected systems the power purchase price is the variable that has the largest impact on system NPC. However, for the case of REMC rate structure, reducing the PV price by 25% can make PV investment profitable even if net billing is used as the compensation mechanism. For the off-grid hybrid system, the system NPC is most sensitive to diesel fuel price, followed by the PV price and the battery price.