Techno-economic feasibility analysis of integrating grid-tied solar PV plant in a wind farm at Harapanahalli, India

Energy in different forms is required to drive a nation's growth and its sustenance. However, a significant issue that plagues the world is exploitation of fossil fuel negligently, for domestic and commercial requirements. The Government of India (GoI) has devised its renewable energy policies to encourage and promote the use of renewable energy sources in an efficient manner. In this paper, feasibility is explored for employing solar PV power generation at a wind power generation site through hybridization such that power production can be improved throughout the year. Simulation studies have been conducted for the site using RETScreen to analyze hybrid power generation at Harapanahalli in Karnataka, India. The wind farm has 18 wind turbine generator (WTG's) installed, having 2 MWe capacities each, producing 36 MWe supplied to the local grid. By using sun path and shadow analysis for the site, it is calculated that 344,531.25 m(2) of shadow-free space is available which can be suitably used for alternate methods of power generation. From the present analysis, it is predicted that annual power generation capacity of the site can be improved by about 90% on adopting hybrid power generation. The project cost is pegged at 188 crores Indian rupees (INR) and the payback period of the hybrid system was ascertained to be approximately 7 years.