Renewable Energy Systems - Chapter 31: Stand-alone hybrid system of solar photovoltaics/wind energy resources: an eco-friendly sustainable approach

The energy demands of human being are met by the conventional energy resources, which are expected to exhaust in the future. The conventional resources are also a big cause of climate change and carbon emission. The renewable energy has become alternative of fossil fuels across the globe for growing energy demands. The renewable energy resources have considerable problem of fickleness and unpredictable nature. The possible solution of this issue is the hybridization of multiple sustainable resources. The most reliable sustainable sources are solar energy and wind energy. The characteristics of both the sources are weather dependent. The hybridization of both sustainable resources has increased the system reliability and reduces the cost of energy generation with the storage devices. The stand-alone hybrid renewable energy system is designed for remote places or off-grid systems. To enhance the performance of stand-alone solar photovoltaics (PV)/wind hybrid system, various sizing and optimization techniques are used. The entire phenomenon of improvement is based on the optimization of objective functions, reliability constraints, and minimization of the aggregate cost function. This work presents the necessary aspects considered for the controlling and modeling of stand-alone solar PV/wind hybrid systems. In this work, several methodologies and criteria for the optimization of the solar PV/wind hybrid renewable systems are also discussed. It is clearly observed that the future of solar PV/wind hybrid system is very bright. The promotional activities and support from the regional authorities are highly required.