Techno-Economic aspects on choosing alternative energy sources (sun and wind) compared with generator

Independent alternative energy systems, such as wind and solar, need batteries to store produced energy in order to supply a reliable source of electricity when needed. Increasing reliability of these sources automatically influence the quality and availability of this type of power supply. Every solar and wind energy system includes a certain number of principle components : Photovoltaic arrays or wind generator, regulator/control unit to control charge/ discharge of the batteries and power supply to consumers, converters from AC to DC and DC to AC, batteries and load. The mode of system operation for both the independent or combined system is influenced by many complicated factors some of which are stochastic variables, time and location variables or constant. From the above complicated data one must choose the optimal system which answers the following criteria: a. Minimum cost which determines the inter relative array sizes for combined systems (photovoltaic cells wind generator and batteries). b. Reliability of power supply in general. c. Full consumption of power installation by obtaining maximum possible output under existing conditions at any time. This paper deals with the connected problems caused in a combined system of solar/photovoltaic cells, wind generator and batteries and will offer alternative economic and technical alternatives for power supply from fuel operated generators . Inverter components: photovoltaic cells and wind generators, which are the principle components without which solar and/or wind systems cannot exist, are discussed from the theoretical and physical aspects. Also, operation of the attached components, such as batteries, inverters, generators, regulators etc, is discussed. The last part of this paper discusses the choosing of the optimal system in a Techno-economic sense as opposed to energy supplied from generator, The work exhibited on these pages will contribute to better understanding of the different systems while increasing awareness of Techno-economic computing installation of systems at sites to supply power to different loads. (author) 29 refs