Economical Design of Wind-Solar Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

Every location on Earth has its own unique set of natural resources to draw upon for sustainable energy production. As these resources are generally of an intermittent nature, hybrid systems will be necessary in many situations to achieve economical energy independence while meeting our inconsistent demands for electricity with minimal or no energy storage. Wind and solar resources often have complimentary attributes that combined can more closely match energy load requirements. This match can be customized for optimum economy by adjusting the orientation and design of the PV system as well as the rotor length and generator size of the wind turbine system. Different load requirements and electricity rate structures require a different design approach in order to achieve optimum cost savings. Using the Penn State SURFRAD wind speed and solar radiation data set the design process for solar-wind hybrid renewable energy systems is explored for the case of a grid-tied residential scale application with a time of use electricity rate structure.