Design of a Hybrid Solar-Wind Power Plant Using Optimization Karim Mousa 1 , Hamzah AlZu’bi 2 , Ali Diabat 3 1 Graduate Student, Masdar Institute of Science And Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE (kmousa@masdar.ac.ae) 2 Graduate Student, Masdar Institute of Science And Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE (halzubi@masdar.ac.ae) 3 Assistant Professor, Masdar Institute of Science And Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE (adiabat@masdar.ac.ae) ABSTRACT Although solar and wind energy are two of the most viable renewable energy sources, little research has been done on operating both energy sources alongside one another in order to take advantage of their complementary characters. In this paper, we develop an optimal design for a hybrid solar-wind energy plant, where the variables that are optimized over include the number of photovoltaic modules, the wind turbine height, the number of wind turbines, and the turbine rotor diameter, and the goal is to minimize costs. Simulation studies and sensitivity analysis reveal that the hybrid plant is able to exploit the complementary nature of the two energy sources, and deliver energy reliably throughout the year. Keywords: renewable energy, hybrid, wind turbines, solar, standalone 1. INTRODUCTION Among the wide range of problems facing our world today, there is global consensus that greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions have the largest negative impact on our environment. GHGs include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydro fluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. These gases help maintain the temperature of the earth at comfortable levels for organisms, and a decrease in their levels would result in a temperature that could be too low for us to survive. However, because GHGs allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere, but trap the heat radiated off the earth’s surface, an increase in these emissions would result in an increase of the planet’s temperature, or global warming, to levels that could be fatal to living organisms. Many scientists also believe that the increase in natural disasters is fueled by climate change, since atmospheric and oceanic patterns shift as the Earth’s temperature increases. The Kyoto protocol, a part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, was negotiated as part of a global effort to reduce GHG emissions. The protocol establishes legally binding commitments on all member nations to reduce their GHG emissions. To allow economies to meet their emissions restrictions, the protocol introduced three “flexible mechanisms”: the Joint Implementation mechanism allows countries to carry out emissions reduction projects in other countries to gain emission credits, the Clean Development mechanism also allows countries to gain emissions credits by financing emissions reduction projects in developing countries, while the third mechanism, Emissions Trading (also known as carbon trading), provides an incentive for governments and companies to reduce their emissions. The financial incentives, along with carbon-emission limits, are not the only factors pushing governments in the direction of renewable and clean energy. The scarcity of fossil fuels and their rapid depletion worldwide has made it necessary to search for alternative energy sources that would meet the current levels of demand. In addition, much of the world’s population lives in remote or rural areas, which are sparsely populated and geographically isolated. Due to the low demand, such regions are not connected to the grid. To develop such areas, an efficient as well as financially feasible method needs to be found to provide these areas with electricity. It has been suggested that renewable energy sources may be well-suited to this task. Renewable energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy have been deemed clean, inexhaustible, unlimited, and environmental friendly [1]. Such characteristics have attracted the energy sector to use renewable energy sources on a larger scale [2]. However, all renewable energy sources have drawbacks. The one that is common to wind and solar sources is their dependence on unpredictable factors such as weather and climatic conditions. Fortunately, due to both sources’ complementary nature, some of these problems can be addressed by overcoming the weaknesses of one with the strengths of the other [2]. This brings us to the hybrid solar-wind power plant concept. A system that brings together two sources of energy is called a hybrid system. The concept of having hybrid power stations is not new, but has gained popularity in recent years [1]. Hybrid energy stations have proven to be advantageous for decreasing the depletion rate of fossil fuels, as well as supplying energy to remote rural areas [3], without harming the environment.