Modeling and Performance Evaluation of a Hybrid Solar-Wind Power Generation Plant

Abstract

This research presents a comprehensive modeling and performance

evaluation of hybrid solar-wind power generation plant with special

attention on the effect of environmental changes on the system.

Unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy sources possess inherent

intermittent nature that limits their stable power supply, but by

combining two or more renewable sources to form a hybrid unit, the

individual limitations are over come since they can complement each

other. Also, the main problem of renewable hybrid system is optimal

sizing; oversized system is uneconomical while under sized can lead

to failure of power supply or insufficient power delivery. However,

in order to select an optimum combination for hybrid renewable

energy system to meet the load demand, the modeling and

performance evaluation of the individual components of a hybrid

solar-wind energy system as well as the entire system was carried

out in this paper using mechanistic method in which the physical

laws and theories of the individual subsystems of the system under

study were analyzed considering their respective mathematical

models. More so, results from the simulation of a 37.8 V solar

module shows that changes in irradiance and temperature affect

greatly the power output of the PV module for both ideal and non-

ideal single diode models, while changes in wind speed affect the

output power of the 1575 W wind turbine under study. In addition,

the hybrid solar-wind power system results show a geometrical

increase in power output when compared to the individual

subsystems. The hybrid performance evaluation under different

varying environmental factors show that increase in irradiance and

wind velocity has a more significant impact on the hybrid system

than temperature changes.