USE OF RENEWABLE SOLAR-WIND HYBRID ENERGY SOURCES TO MEETLOCAL ELECTRICITY DEMAND: CURRENT STATUS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Renewable energy sources are those which are abundantly available in nature. These are solar, wind, sea, geothermal and biomass and energy generated from these sources are carbon free with less pollution and capable enough to compensate the energy generated from coal and other fossil fuels. Wind and solar energy are becoming popular owing to abundance, availability and ease of harnessing for electrical power generation. It is very common to use these two aforementioned sources to generate electricity independently, i.e. solar power acting alone or wind power alone. Sometimes, though, it is desired that two of these renewable energy resources are combined together to generate electricity and these types of systems are called a Hybrid Power System (HPS). Hybrid power systems therefore, provide increased system efficiency and greater balance in supply of energy. The presentation will be a brief overview of research conducted around the world to design and implement HPS-s that combine wind and solar energy to produce reliable and sustainable electricity for local purposes. Also, information about the research conducting in these directions at the “Novel Alloys Design and Development Lab” (NOVALAB) of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department in Middle East Technical University (MetE-METU) and "New Materials and Nanotechnology" Center of Excellence of Azerbaijan Technical University (AzTU) and the details of joint research project proposal within the framework of the Japan-Azerbaijan technical cooperation program in the designing and implementation of solar-wind hybrid energy system at main campus and Techno-park of AzTU in order to supply full electricity demand from green energy sources will be given.