A Hybrid Renewable Energy System (Wind and Solar) Size Optimization and Costing for Residential Buildings in Urban Armidale NSW, Australia

Abstract

This paper discusses and determines the optimization process of sizing a hybrid renewable energy system designed for urban residential buildings in Armidale NSW, Australia. The considered renewable energy system comprises of solar photovoltaic (PV) system and wind turbines as small scale or micro-scale, thus it is a green sustainable system compared with already existing in use conventional traditional electricity generation based on fossil fuel, mainly coal burning which is definitely neither green nor sustainable. This proposed alternative renewable energy systems includes battery racks as storage device. Software called HOMER software developed by the National Renewable Energy USA utilized for the simulation and evaluation purposes. The optimisation process depends on a very common economic analysis which is the net present cost (NPC) analysis, meaning that the system of the highest energy production, the most optimum efficiency and the least NPC through the energy. Conclusions and recommendations are provided considering the residential buildings occupants' number and relevant electrical consumption with proposed renewable energy wind and solar PV combinations.