Abstract

Solar and wind energy systems are attractive hybrid renewable energy systems suitable for various applications and most commonly for power generation. Compared to standalone wind and solar devices, hybrid systems have several advantages, including requiring lesser or no storage devices, being more reliable, damping the daily and seasonal variations and ensuring constant energy flows. This work aims to conduct a feasibility study and a performance analysis of a hybrid wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) power system in selected regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). A detailed review on the potential of PV, wind energy and hybrid energy systems in KSA, to reason out the potential areas of study, has identified two sites to be selected to carry out the investigation. A small size power system driven by solar and wind energy has been modeled and simulated for a year period in the selected locations. Various configuration schemes of integrated solar and wind with storage devices for such a small capacity system have been proposed and their respective performances have been evaluated. Techno-economic aspects have been included. The simulation results indicated that the developed model shows a promising future of implementing the renewable energy system in the eastern and southern regions of the Kingdom. 

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