Office for Environmental Programs - Theses

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    Analysis of utility scale solar PV and wind power in Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands
    Apolo, Hector ( 2015)
    The Galapagos Islands is one of the world’s pristine archipelago. It has been inscribed as an UNESCO World Natural Heritage since 1978 (Estrella et al. 2011). This archipelago is also well known because Charles Darwin studied the origin of species in this islands. However, it is in great threat due to the main energy source is diesel. Hence, the Ecuadorian government has an initiative call ‘Zero fossil fuel in the Galapagos Islands’ which aims to reduce of diesel by replacing by renewable energy. In this context this research will try to show which is the least cost pathway to increase renewable energy. The research will focus in the most populated island which is Santa Cruz and in solar and wind energy technologies. This project will try to answer the research question by modelling different scenarios using data provided by Galapagos Utility Company. After done the modelling of the scenarios this research demonstrate that the most cost effective way to increase renewable energy in Santa Cruz is by incrementing the wind energy. Wind energy has better capacity factor and lower capital costs than solar energy.