Optimizing of hybrid renewable photovoltaic/wind turbine/super capacitor for improving self-sustainability

Abstract The study evaluate the utilization of an ultra supercapacitor as an energy storage unit effectively increase energy self-consumption in applications using microgrid renewable energy systems. Two scenarios were evaluated in this study: (scenario A) a photovoltaic and energy storage system; and (scenario B) a photovoltaic, energy storage, and wind turbine system. The systems analysis was conducted using experimental data for weather and load with a temporal precision of 1 min. The daily average of the electrical load profile was 5.0 kWh/day, with a maximum peak of 4.5 kW, and the annual energy consumption utilized to calculate the electrical load profile was 1859 kWh/year. The research indicates that charging the ultra supercapacitor only with renewable energy sources can greatly enhance self-consumption of energy. Using only six ultra supercapacitors (300 F–2.7 V/unit), the annual percentage of self-consumption increased from 37.01 to 46.65% and the percentage of self-sufficiency increased from 27.54 to 41.69% for scenario (A), and from 38.52 to 48.75% and the percentage of energy self-sufficiency increased from 33.50 to 49.87% for scenario (B). The research shows that by including tiny, rapid-response energy storage, the yearly averaged energy self-consumption for the investigated load rises in comparison to the system without energy storage, making it an attractive candidate for batteries.