Review of Optimization Techniques for Sizing Renewable Energy Systems

Abstract

The growing evidence of the global warning phenomena and the rapid depletion of fossil fuels have drawn the world attention to the exploitation of renewable energy sources (RES). However standalone RES has been proven to be very expensive and unreliable in nature owing to the stochastic nature of the energy sources. Hybrid energy system is an excellent solution for electrification of areas where the grid extension is difficult and not economical. One of the main attributes of hybridising is to be able to optimally size each RES including storages with the aim of minimizing operation costs while efficiently and reliably responding to load demand. Hybrid RES emerges as a trend born out of the need to fully utilize and solve problems associated with the reliability of RES. This paper presents a review of techniques used in recent optimal sizing of hybrid RES. It discusses several methodologies and criteria for optimization of hybrid RES. The recent trend in optimization in the field of hybrid RES shows that bio-inspired techniques may provide good optimization of system without extensive long weather data.