An Economic Feasibility Study of Wind-Diesel Hybrid Power Systems for an Island in the Yellow Sea

In this paper, an economic feasibility study of wind-diesel hybrid power systems for an island in the Yellow Sea, where the maximum power generation is about 500kW, was performed. For the study, annual electric load variation and wind resource data of the island were collected and analyzed. HOMER program - a typical hybrid optimization model for electric renewables including wind resource, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory - was used. Wind speed and diesel price were picked out as variables for the sensitivity analysis in order to find the economic accountability for the wind-diesel hybrid power system. As the result, even though it is not feasible economically under the present condition, if mean wind speed is over 3 m/sec. or diesel price goes up to 2.4 $ per liter, the wind-diesel hybrid power system for the island becomes a prospective candidate.