29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

COMPARISON OF A STAND-ALONE PV SYSTEM WITH A STAND-ALONE

HYBRID (PV/WIND) SYSTEM ON A BUILDING IN CYPRUS
Angelos Phinikarides*, Georgios Arnaoutakis, Marios Theristis and Gudrun Kocher
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom
*corresponding author email: ph.angelos@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: The operation of a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system is compared with a hybrid PV/Wind for a 100 m2
household in Larnaca, Cyprus in respect to costs and Loss of Load Probability (LOLP). A model was developed to simulate
the operation of both systems over a period of a year using real hourly meteorogical data and a hypothetical load demand
profile. Optimum sizing combinations of the number of system components were selected in order to achieve a 20.1% of
LOLP with the lowest possible cost. The most economic design in terms of capital and replacement cost and lowest
unsatisfied energy was found to be the PV/Wind with 30.8% lower cost compared to a PV only system..
Keywords: Hybrid, PV system, Stand-alone PV systems

INTRODUCTION

An investigation was carried out to identify the

average energy consumption of a four-member residence
in Cyprus based on a previous study for a stand-alone PV
system [5]. The average daily energy consumption of the
household was estimated to be 9.71 kWh.
An economic energy consumption profile in terms of
energy saving appliances, light bulbs, ceiling fans, double
framed walls and insulations was assumed.

This study investigates two stand-alone systems, a PV

and a hybrid PV/Wind system, hypothetically installed on
the same residence in Larnaca.
Cyprus is a promising location not only for PV
systems but also for domestic wind systems giving a good
opportunity to build sustainable houses with minimum
costs and maximized efficiency [1], [2].
2

3.1 System installation

Monocrystalline silicon solar panels (Solar energy
power plus SE-185M24/F) [6] were selected with a peak
efficiency of 13%. A 1 kW wind turbine (Foshan OUYAD
FD3.0-1,000) [7] with cut-in wind speed 2 m/s was also
chosen with AGM type batteries (Effekta, BTL 12-200
12V/200Ah) [8] with an efficiency of 85%. Moreover, a
Phocos CXN 40A charge controller was chosen for both
systems. The minimum input current (MIC) was calculated
as:
MICcontroller = 5.46 A * 1.25 = 6.825 A

LOCATION SELECTION

Similar systems have been compared previously [3]

for Nicosia concluding that PV/Wind systems do not offer
high availability due to the low wind potential observed in
the examined area [4]. Nicosia, however, is not considered
to be an ideal location because of the low yearly average
wind speed of 2 m/s in comparison to other areas in
Cyprus. Table 1 shows the wind statistics based on the
measurements taken for each month of the year from
different weather stations in Cyprus.

In both systems, the AC inverter (Cotek 300W/24V)

was selected with 5.75 kW power and 90% efficiency.

Table 1: Mean monthly wind speed data (m/s) in Cyprus

[4].
Station
name

Pafos

Limassol

Nicosia

Athalassa

Larnaka

3.2 System simulation

All the system inputs described in section 3.1 along
with the solar and wind resource data were sequentially
computed for the time j of the year.
The formulas used in both systems simulations are
explained below:
EPV(j): Energy production from the PV system at the time j
of the year.

Considering the data from Table 1, Larnaca was

selected for this investigation due to the higher wind
potential in relation to other locations in Cyprus, having an
average wind speed of 4 m/s. According to the wind data
in Cyprus [4] 30% of the occurring of days with high wind
resource in Larnaca have a mean hourly wind speed higher
than 5 m/s. Therefore, Larnaca district is considered an
appropriate area for wind energy systems.
3

EPV(j) = S*(r[1-p(Tc-Tr)])*G(j)

(1)

where:

G(j): Irradiation at the time j of the year

S: Area of the PV
r: Efficiency of PV at temperature Tr=25C
p: Temperature rate performance of the system
Tc: Temperature of the system
Tc is associated with the environment temperature Ta
according to Evans equation [9]:

METHODOLOGY

Tc - Ta=(219+832KT)* (NOCT-20)/800

A simulation model was created where the energy

output, efficiency, load demand, supplied and unsatisfied
energy, LOLP and cost were calculated.

where:

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(2)

NOCT: Nominal operating cell temperature

KT: average monthly cloud index

29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

The average monthly cloud index were obtained from the

software PVsyst.

of system (BOS) components over the lifetime of the

system.
All the components costs were calculated after a
market research [12][13][14][15]. A total of a 5-year
period was assumed to be the maximum for battery
operation, so a total of four replacements during 20 years
were taken into account. Inverter and charge controller
were also considered for a replacement after ten years of
operation.

EHYBRID(j): Energy production from the hybrid system at

the time j of the year.
EHYBRID(j)= EWT(j)+ EPV(j)
EWT(j) = E*N*H
Where: E= Energy coming out from the power curve in
respect to the wind speed
N= Number of wind turbines
H= Hour of the day

4.1 Optimal Sizing

Optimum combinations of both PV and hybrid systems
were implemented in order to provide the estimated 9.71
kWh daily load with a 20.1% of LOLP, with the lowest
possible cost.

3.3 Correction factors

Equation (2) was multiplied by a correction factor
since the irradiation data were recorded at 0o and the
optimum angle in Cyprus is 31o:
Cf = 1-1.17 * 10-4 (Sm-S)2
where:

(3)

Table 2: PV system scenarios

LOLP
(%)

Eunsatisfied
(kWh)

Capital
Cost
()

Capital &
Replacement
cost* ()

2.0

280.10

8.910

17.170

10

2.1

260.60

9.050

19.830

2.1

286.50

11.850

18.430

PV

WT

30

25

55

A performance degradation factor of 0.7% per year

[10] was assumed to account for losses due to degradation.
Due to the fact that the domestic wind turbine will be
installed at 6 meters above ground, actual data at this
height should be considered. The wind power law was
used to transfer the given wind data at 10m to the desired
hub height [11]:

where:

BAT

SCENARIO

Sm = Optimum tilt angle (31)

S = Actual angle (0)

UZ=UR* [(ln Z/Z0) / (ln ZR/Z0)]

RESULTS

* Replacement of batteries, inverter and charge controller

Table 2 shows three combinations for the PV system.

The lowest unsatisfied energy corresponds to the scenario
B with the highest number of batteries. However, the
number of batteries leads to a more expensive system,
considering that the batteries will need replacement during
the systems lifetime. Since scenario A has three batteries
less than scenario B, the total cost is reduced by 13.4%.
Scenario C shows the highest unsatisfied energy due to the
low number of batteries. Also, the high number of PV
panels makes it the less favorable system because of the
surface area that the panels need to cover.
By considering the same criteria as the PV system the
following table has been created (Table 3):

(4)

Z = Hub height
ZR = Current height
Z0= Surface roughness
UR = Wind speed at current height at time (j)

3.4 Sizing of PV and Hybrid systems

The algorithm that determines the LOLP, satisfies the
following inequality for each hour of the day:

Table 3: Scenarios for stand-alone Hybrid system

SCENARIO

PV

WT

BAT

LOLP
(%)

Eunsatisfied
(kWh)

Capital
Cost
()

Capital &
Replacement
cost* ()

10

10

2.0

263.80

7.950

18.730

10

2.0

266.50

6.990

11.890

13

2.0

270.90

7.250

14.670

Available energy < Energy demand

where:

Energy demand = ED(j)/inv

Available energy = E(j) + (EB(j)*B)

(5)
(6)

E(j) is the total energy of the installed PV panels or

PV+WT for the hybrid system, inv is the efficiency of the
inverter, which is assumed to be constant, ED(j) is the
energy demand, EB (j) is the nominal power available from
the battery at time j, of which 80% are available due to the
assumed depth of discharge (DOD). The behaviour of the
batteries has been calculated using a fixed efficiency value
(B) for both phases, charge and discharge. The unit step
function was used to calculate the days throughout the year
where the generation does not meet the demand.

Scenarios D and F were investigated having a single

wind turbine while Scenario E consists of two wind
turbines. It is shown that scenario E offers the cheapest
solution due to the low number of batteries. On the other
hand, scenario D is the most expensive having 10 batteries
for energy storage. In comparison with the standalone PV
system, it can be seen that the hybrid system offers a
30.8%, cheaper option, due to the operation of the wind
turbines during the night and the lower number of
batteries.
The effect of a wind turbine addition in an existing PV
system has also been investigated, by keeping the number
of PV panels fixed at 20. Thereby, after fixing the amount
of PV panels and LOLP less than 30.1%, the sizing of the
system depended on the number of batteries can be
compared (see Tables 4 and 5).

3.5 Cost analysis

Capital cost includes the costs of each component i.e.
PV panels, wind turbines, inverter, charge controller,
mounting and wiring as well as labour/installation cost.
Since operation and maintenance (O&M) is an
important cost factor in any power generation system, the
analysis also includes the replacement cost of the balance

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29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

Table 4: PV system scenarios with fixed PV panels

Capital
Cost
()
8,350

Capital &
Replacement
cost* ()
19,130

356.4

9,470

23,610

276.5

10,590

28,090

SCENARIO

PV

WT

BAT

LOLP
(%)

Eunsatisfied
(kWh)

20

10

3.1

329.9

20

14

2.7

20

18

2.5

Table 5: Hybrid system scenarios with fixed PV

panels

280.0

Capital
Cost
()
7,670

Capital &
Replacement
cost* ()
13.410

2.7

338.0

7,390

12.290

1.6

248.1

7,950

14.530

SCENARIO

PV

WT

BAT

LOLP
(%)

Eunsatisfied
(kWh)

20

2.0

20

20

Figure 2: Energy generation and load demand of PV/Wind

scenario K on third week of December (worst case
scenario).
It can be clearly seen that the wind turbine supports the
system by maximizing the energy production in order to
meet the demand and also charges the batteries during low
or no irradiation periods. Although some hours of unmet
demand can be seen, the hybrid system offers higher
reliability and lower cost as shown from scenario K, thus is
preferred to the PV system.

The addition of a wind turbine reduced the number of

PV batteries significantly and consequently the total cost.
By comparing the lowest cost scenarios from both tables, it
can be seen that the hybrid system is 6,840 cheaper than
the PV system having 7 batteries less. The unsatisfied
energy for the PV scenario is 9 kWh more than the hybrid
scenario.

4.3 Monthly data analysis

4.2 Analysis of daily data

Figure 3 summarises the energy production for the

whole year showing separately the energy generation from
the PV, wind turbine and the hybrid system.

December is one of the worst months with respect to

power generation, and therefore the third week of the
month was chosen in order to see a more detailed view as
a worst case scenario for satisfying energy demand during
a single week or day. Figure 1 represents the case
considering only the PV array.

Figure 3: Energy produced by the PV system, the wind

turbine and the hybrid system (kWh)
From Figure 3, it can be seen that in general the wind
turbine has a lower generation output than the PV array
throughout the year. However it works as a supplementary
and supports the system when the solar irradiance is low
and the PV array cannot generate enough power to meet
the demand. It could operate more efficiently if more
storage batteries could be installed as the amount of solar
radiation recorded in Cyprus is very high throughout the
whole island compared to the wind speed. By adding more
batteries however, the total cost will be increased.

Figure 1: Energy generation and load demand of PV

system scenario G on third week of December (worst case
scenario).
This systems generation is considered to be
satisfactory, but there are still some gaps during the week,
where the system cannot meet the demand, as shown in
Figure 1. The reason is the low solar irradiation which
does not contribute enough in the energy production in
order to meet the load demand or even charge the storage
batteries. These cases result in the unreliability of the
whole operation of the system.
Looking at the stand-alone hybrid system, the same
worst case scenario is presented in Figure 2.

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

In this project the operation of an autonomous

photovoltaic and a hybrid (PV/Wind) system was
simulated. A performance analysis of both systems was the
main objective of this work and the scope was to produce
enough electricity to cover the peak demand and annual
power demand for a residence in Larnaca, Cyprus. A
survey for the meteorological data considering various

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29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

locations in Cyprus and more specifically Nicosia and

Larnaca was conducted in order to get the specific data
that would help to find out the most appropriate area to
compare both systems. Both systems were numerically
modelled and were compared using the LOLP as a
criterion.
Several combinations for each system were obtained for
the same LOLP of 20.1%. By comparing the lowest cost
scenarios (A for the PV system and E for the hybrid
system) it can be noted that the hybrid system is 5,280
cheaper than the PV system due to the lower number of
batteries, that is4 batteries less. The unsatisfied energy for
the PV scenario is 13.5 kWh more than the hybrid
scenario that is using two wind turbines. The addition of a
wind turbine in an existing PV system was also examined,
keeping the number of PV panels fixed at 20. The choice
of the optimum scenario was found to be strongly
dependent on the number of batteries due to the increase
they cause in the O&M cost. The main conclusion that
emerges from the investigated scenarios is that although
Larnaca presents low wind potential in relation to an area
with an average wind speed of 6-7 m/s, the hybrid system
scenario K is found to be the optimum one, as it is more
economical and reliable.

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[15] Wind turbine cost [online]
http://www.eshops.gr/wind-generators/autonomesanemogennitries.html

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