Feasibility Study of Stand-Alone PV-Wind-Biomass Hybrid Energy System in Australia

This paper presents a feasibility study of photovoltaic (PV), wind, biomass and battery storage based hybrid renewable energy (HRE) system providing electricity to residential area in Australia. The system with load of 200 kWh · day^-1 is analyzed through the environmental and economic aspects. The study computes the net present cost (NPC, $), cost of energy (COE, $ · KWh^-1) and the emissions (kg · year^-1) of greenhouse gas (GHG) of the HRE system running under the specific renewable energy resource mentioned above. The monthly daily mean global solar irradiance and wind speed data of the capitals of the seven regions of the six states and various territories of Australia (Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales) are generated by the RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Software produced by Natural Resources Canada. The long-term continuous implementation of the system is simulated. The software HOMER produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is used as a simulating tool. Their cost and emissions are compared with each other among the systems. It is found that an off-grid PV-wind-biomass HRE system is an effective way of emissions reduction and it does not increase the investment of the energy system.