Performance assessment of hybrid renewable energy system in subtropical climate in Australia

Industrialization mainly depends on electricity, the most available form of energy. Energy can be harnessed either from renewable energy sources or non-renewable energy sources. Non-renewable energy sources are becoming consistently environmentally damaging to retrieve. On the other hand, no individual renewable energy sources can be utilized throughout the year. Therefore, the use of hybrid renewable energy systems (combination of two or more renewable energy sources) for power generation is very important and considered as necessary. This study assesses the performance of hybrid (solar and wind) renewable energy generation in Australian subtropical climate in Rockhampton where both solar and wind are strong for hybrid power generation. The hybrid power system is modelled using software called HOMER which is a hybrid power optimization tool for the analysis and performance assessment of the system. It is found from the simulation studies and sensitivity analysis that when solar and wind power production is used together, the reliability of the system is enhanced and it does provide energy consistently for the whole year and emissions of CO2, SO2 and NOx are decreased significantly compared to standard grid power system.