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Ali Diabat
Khalifa University
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ABSTRACT
Although solar and wind energy are two of the most viable renewable energy sources, little research has been done on
operating both energy sources alongside one another in order to take advantage of their complementary characters. In this
paper, we develop an optimal design for a hybrid solar-wind energy plant, where the variables that are optimized over
include the number of photovoltaic modules, the wind turbine height, the number of wind turbines, and the turbine rotor
diameter, and the goal is to minimize costs. Simulation studies and sensitivity analysis reveal that the hybrid plant is able to
exploit the complementary nature of the two energy sources, and deliver energy reliably throughout the year.
Keywords: renewable energy, hybrid, wind turbines, solar, standalone
1. INTRODUCTION
The financial incentives, along with carbon-emission
Among the wide range of problems facing our world limits, are not the only factors pushing governments in
today, there is global consensus that greenhouse gas the direction of renewable and clean energy. The scarcity
(GHGs) emissions have the largest negative impact on of fossil fuels and their rapid depletion worldwide has
our environment. GHGs include carbon dioxide, made it necessary to search for alternative energy
methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydro sources that would meet the current levels of demand. In
fluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. These gases help addition, much of the world’s population lives in remote
maintain the temperature of the earth at comfortable or rural areas, which are sparsely populated and
levels for organisms, and a decrease in their levels would geographically isolated. Due to the low demand, such
result in a temperature that could be too low for us to regions are not connected to the grid. To develop such
survive. However, because GHGs allow sunlight to enter areas, an efficient as well as financially feasible method
the atmosphere, but trap the heat radiated off the earth’s needs to be found to provide these areas with electricity.
surface, an increase in these emissions would result in an It has been suggested that renewable energy sources may
increase of the planet’s temperature, or global warming, be well-suited to this task.
to levels that could be fatal to living organisms. Many
scientists also believe that the increase in natural Renewable energy sources such as solar energy and wind
disasters is fueled by climate change, since atmospheric energy have been deemed clean, inexhaustible,
and oceanic patterns shift as the Earth’s temperature unlimited, and environmental friendly [1]. Such
increases. characteristics have attracted the energy sector to use
renewable energy sources on a larger scale [2]. However,
The Kyoto protocol, a part of the United Nations all renewable energy sources have drawbacks. The one
Framework Convention on Climate Change, was that is common to wind and solar sources is their
negotiated as part of a global effort to reduce GHG dependence on unpredictable factors such as weather and
emissions. The protocol establishes legally binding climatic conditions. Fortunately, due to both sources’
commitments on all member nations to reduce their complementary nature, some of these problems can be
GHG emissions. To allow economies to meet their addressed by overcoming the weaknesses of one with the
emissions restrictions, the protocol introduced three strengths of the other [2]. This brings us to the hybrid
“flexible mechanisms”: the Joint Implementation solar-wind power plant concept.
mechanism allows countries to carry out emissions
reduction projects in other countries to gain emission A system that brings together two sources of energy is
credits, the Clean Development mechanism also allows called a hybrid system. The concept of having hybrid
countries to gain emissions credits by financing power stations is not new, but has gained popularity in
emissions reduction projects in developing countries, recent years [1]. Hybrid energy stations have proven to
while the third mechanism, Emissions Trading (also be advantageous for decreasing the depletion rate of
known as carbon trading), provides an incentive for fossil fuels, as well as supplying energy to remote rural
governments and companies to reduce their emissions. areas [3], without harming the environment.
Thus, a solar-wind power system that takes advantage of energy system; different combinations of wind energy
wind and solar energy’s complementary characteristics systems, photovoltaic panels with battery storage, and a
would seem to be a viable idea. However, the difficulty diesel backup energy system were investigated.
brought about by combining two different energy
sources makes the hybrid system more difficult to The feasibility of a grid-independent hybrid wind/solar
analyze. For this reason, there is a rich literature system for a particular region of Australia was studied by
dedicated to modeling and designing hybrid energy Shakya et al. [10]; this design featured a compressed
sources such as wind/solar power plants. hydrogen gas storage system.
The feasibility of meeting the energy demand of a Borowy and Salameh [16] develop a graphical
seawater greenhouse in Oman using a hybrid wind/solar construction technique for determining the optimal sizes
energy system was assessed by Mahmoudi et al. [8] by of the battery bank and the PV array in a hybrid
analyzing hourly wind speed and solar radiation wind/solar system.Only paired combinations of the three
measurements. subsystems were considered in the optimization process.
Elhadidy and Shaahid [9] assessed the feasibility of Yang et al. [17,18] develop simulation models for a
providing power to and meeting the load requirements of hybrid wind/solar system which are used to calculate
a typical commercial building using a hybrid solar-wind optimized combinations of PV module, wind turbine,
and battery bank parameters for a given loss of power design of a hybrid power generation system, with the
supply probability (LPSP). Variables such as wind objective of maximizing power, while minimizing cost.
turbine height and PV angle are not included in the
study. 3. THE MODEL
In this paper, we study the design of a hybrid stand-alone 2.1 Notation: Parameters and Values
solar-wind power generation system that could be used
for various applications such as supplying power to rural Table 1 summarizes the notation used in our model.
areas. Variables considered in the design include the Values for parameters are shown, and variables with a ‘?’
number of PV modules, the wind turbine height, the as a value are the decision variables in our model.
number of wind turbines, and the rotor diameter of the
turbines. These variables are used to find the optimal
2.2.1 Objective Function Equation (7) shows the expected total output power
generated by the total number of wind turbines in the
Equation (1) shows our objective function, which we design; this equation incorporates the effect of the
aim to minimize. It consists of our total costs (wind and turbine height and diameter.
solar), including maintenance costs and capital costs, and
considers the interest rate over the project lifetime. The Po Wind =Nw 1+0.814ln h -1.92
cost functions are elaborated on in Section 2.2.3. * 0.5×rho×πr2 cp V3w Ng Nb (7)
Cost wind +Cost Solar (1) The overall power output generated by the solar arrays is
given by Equation (8); it is based on a similar model
2.2.2 Demand Constraint used by Yang et al. [2] in the analysis of a hybrid solar-
wind power generation system.
Equation (2) ensures that our model meets the power
demand of the load, using the power generated from the Voc Voc
nKT -ln nKT +0.72
hybrid system – from both wind turbines and solar q q
arrays. The power generated by both sources is Voc *
1+ nKT
Po Solar =Ns (8)
considered over a 12 month period under different q
Figure 1 shows the solar radiation and the wind speed as Table 2: Optimal design parameters for different
a percentage of the maximum attainable from each applications
resource separately, over the course of a year. The Application Ns Nw r h Annual
generated data was plotted, and a best-fit line was drawn. Cost
Weather 2 1 10m 34m $107,362
120
Station
House 3 1 15m 52m $147,545
Wind Speed (%), Solar Radation(%)
10 Wind
8 Solar
required energy, thus providing clear evidence of a
6 Total
complementary relationship between the two sources.
4 Demand
2
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Months