Abstract
In this paper, a comparative evaluation to optimal, cost-effective, and reliable designing of hybrid renewable and clean energy systems consisting of photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine (WT), tidal, and fuel cell (FC) energy (PV/WT/tidal/FC) with hydrogen storage (HS) is proposed. The determination of optimal system configuration is provided for three regions of Iran: Gorgan, Urmia, and Yazd with suitable weather conditions because of assessing the potential of renewable energy in these regions. The evaluation is based on real data regarding radiation, wind speed and water speed, with the objective of minimising the hybrid system net present cost (HSNPC) and satisfying the reliability constraint, i.e. the load deficit probability (LDP). A whale optimisation algorithm (WOA) with high convergence and accuracy speed is considered to determine the optimal configuration of the hybrid system with the minimum HSNPC and cost of energy (COE) that satisfies the LDP for different regions. In this study, seven different design combinations of hybrid systems are implemented. The optimal combination is determined for any region in view of the lowest cost and best reliability, as well as the contributions from renewable energy sources and storage systems. It has been also confirmed that the WOA is superior to particle swarm optimisation (PSO) for hybrid system optimisation. The results showed that optimal combination for all regions comprises a hybrid PV/WT/tidal/FC based HS. The COE values for Gorgan, Urmia, and Yazd are found to be $0.7789, $1.0864, and $0.4477, and the LDPs for these regions are 0.0090, 0.0093, and 0.0090. Moreover, the results clarified the additional contribution of tidal energy for the Gorgan and Yazd regions, the additional PV contribution to the Urmia region, and the reduced contributions related to WT sources.