TY - JOUR
TI - Economic perspective of hybrid wind-diesel technology for commercial loads of Dhahran Saudi Arabia: A step towards sustainable future
AU - Shaahid Syed M
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2015
VL - 19
IS - 1
SP - 167
EP - 178
PT - Article
AB - The governments world-wide are deliberating to promote renewable energy  sources such as wind to mitigate increasing demand of energy and to overcome  effects of pollution due to to use of fossil fuels. Integration of wind  turbine generators (WTG) with the diesel plants is pursued widely to reduce  dependence on fossil-fuels and to reduce carbon emissions. Literature  indicates that commercial/residential buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi  Arabia (K.S.A) consume an estimated 10 - 40% of the total electric energy  generated. The aim of this study is to analyze wind-speed data of Dhahran  (East-Coast, K.S.A.) to assess the economic feasibility of utilizing hybrid  wind-diesel power systems to meet the load requirements of a typical  commercial building (with annual electrical energy demand of 620,000 kWh).  The monthly average wind speeds range from 3.3 to 5.6 m/s. The hybrid  systems simulated consist of different combinations of 100 kW commercial WTG  supplemented with diesel generators. NREL’s (HOMER Energy’s) HOMER software  has been employed to perform the techno-economic analysis. The simulation  results indicate that for a hybrid system comprising of 100 kW wind capacity  together with 175 kW diesel system, the wind penetration (at 37 m  hub-height, with 0% annual capacity shortage) is 25%. The cost of generating  energy (COE, $/kWh) from this hybrid wind-diesel system has been found to be  0.121 $/kWh (assuming diesel fuel price of 0.1$/liter). The study exhibits  that for a given hybrid configuration, the number of operational hours of  diesel gensets decreases with increase in wind farm capacity. Emphasis has  also been placed on wind penetration, un-met load, energy production and  COE, excess electricity generation, percentage fuel savings and reduction in  carbon emissions (relative to diesel-only situation) of different hybrid  systems, cost break-down of wind-diesel systems, COE of different hybrid  systems, etc.