Software tools for analyzing the hybrid renewable energy sources:-A review

Abstract

Energy is very important for a country for both its economic growth and socio-economic development. The main source of energy is fossil fuels. However, the use of fossil fuels has severe effects on environment like emission of greenhouse gasses. These diverse effects have leads to the demand of renewable energy resources. Renewable energy sources like wind, solar, hydro based energies, etc. are environment friendly and have potential to be more widely used. However they have problem in generating electricity for continues period of time. Hybrid Renewable Energy system combines two or more renewable sources of energy for continues generation of electricity. However, for the efficient operation of these systems, different optimization techniques should be applied. This requires software tools for the design, analysis, optimization, and economic viability of the systems. In this paper, different software tools used for the optimization of hybrid renewable energy sources are presented. The main objective of the paper is to provide a researcher basic insight to identify and utilize suitable tool for research and development studies of renewable energy systems and the current status of these softwares. The abilities of all the softwares are also highlighted. The availability and limitations has also been presented.