Techno-Economic Evaluation of standalone Hybrid Solar-Wind Systems for Small Residential Districts in the Central Desert of Iran

Today, it is common knowledge that increased use of renewable energies has a significant impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The most notable types of renewable energies are solar energy and wind energy, whose popularity comes from their prominent features such as cost-effectiveness, stability and easy utilization. The objective of this paper is to perform a technical-economic analysis on combined utilization of solar and wind power in two cities of Qom and Yazd, to conduct a feasibility study on the construction of clean energy producing power plants in these locations. To achieve this objective, we first gather the required data from the national meteorological organization, and then use Homer software to perform technical and economic analyses on the two considered sites. Solar and wind analyses on Qom and Yazd show that both cities have great potential in solar energy generation, but wind speed data indicate that only Qom has the wind characteristics appropriate for wind power generation. Overall, these results indicate that investments on solar energy sector of both cities will be economically justified, but only Qom has the wind characteristics required to make investments on its wind energy sector economic. (C) 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 1194-1207, 2017