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A Review of Hybrid Renewable/Alternative Energy Systems for Electric Power Generation: Configurations, Control and Applications
Special Task Force of the IEEE PES Renewable Energy Technologies Subcommittee, Energy Development and Power Generation Committee: M.H. Nehrir, C. Wang, K. Strunz, H. Aki, R. Ramakumar, J. Bing, Z. Miao, Z. Salameh

Abstract This paper, prepared by a special task force of the IEEE PES Renewable Energy Technologies Subcommittee, is a review of hybrid renewable/alternative energy (RE/AE) power generation systems focusing on energy sustainability. It highlights some important issues and challenges in the design and energy management of hybrid RE/AE systems. System configurations, generation unit sizing, storage needs, and energy management and control are addressed. Statistics on the current status and future trend of renewable power generation, as well as some critical challenges facing the wide-spread deployment of RE/AE power generation technologies and vision for future research in this area are also presented. The comprehensive list of references given at the end of the paper should be helpful to researchers working in this area.
Key WordsHybrid energy systems, renewable power generation, energy management, energy storage, generation unit sizing

I. INTRODUCTION This century is expected to witness unprecedented growth and challenges in power generation, delivery, and usage. Environmentally-friendly (renewable and clean alternatives) power generation technologies will play an important role in future power supply due to increased global public awareness of the need for environmental protection and desire for less dependence on fossil fuels for energy production. These technologies include power generation from renewable energy (RE) resources, such as wind, photovoltaic (PV), micro hydro (MH), biomass, geothermal, ocean wave and tides, and clean alternative energy (AE) power generation technologies [such as fuel cells (FC) and microturbines (MT)]. RE/AE generation sources often come in the form of customized distributed generation (DG) systems in grid-connected or stand-alone configuration. FC and MT could also be considered renewable power generation sources if their input fuel is obtained from
M.H. Nehrir is with Montana State University; C. Wang, Wayne State University; K. Strunz, Technical University of Berlin, Germany; H. Aki, AIST, Japan; R. Ramakumar, Oklahoma State University; J. Bing, NEO Virtus Engineering, Inc. Littleton, MA; Z. Miao, University of South Florida; and Z. Salameh, University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

renewable sources. For instance, landfill gas has been used to fuel MT, biomass can be gasified into Syngas and used as fuel for MT and FC, or hydrogen fuel can be generated using windor PV-generated electricity (through an electrolyzer) for FC. Though not renewable, diesel generators and reciprocating engines are also still commonly used for a wide range of power applications, particularly in remote areas, and as backup energy sources in some stand-alone systems such as a power source for a remote telecommunication tower. The diesel engines mature technology, relatively cheaper price, low fuel cost, and high fuel efficiency have kept diesel generators in the market. They are also reasonably fuel tolerant and can be considered renewable power sources when fueled by renewable fuels such as bio-fuel. In general, the key drivers for the deployment of the above energy systems are their perceived benefits, such as reduced carbon emission, improved power quality and reliability, and in some cases, combined heat-and-power (CHP) operation (e.g., for MT and FC), which will increase their overall system efficiency significantly. In the past half century extensive research has been conducted in the RE/AE area world-wide, including feasibility studies, computer modeling, control, and experimental work, e.g. [1-15]. As a result, the use of wind and PV power generation has become a reality and extensive work is underway on other RE/AE generation technologies such as ocean wave and tides, osmotic, geothermal, FC, and MT. Much work is also needed on the more mature technologies and associated energy storage schemes to improve their operational performance and reliability. Because of the intermittent nature of many of RE resources (e.g., wind, solar, ocean wave), hybrid combination of two or more of their relevant power generation technologies, along with storage and/or AE power generation can improve system performance. For example, wind and solar energy resources in a given area are somewhat complementary on a daily and/or seasonal basis. In general, hybrid systems convert all the resources into one form (typically electrical) and/or store the energy into some form (chemical, compressed air, thermal, mechanical flywheel, etc.), and the aggregated output is used to supply a variety of loads. Hybridization could result in increased reliability; however, proper technology selection and

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2 generation unit sizing are essential in the design of such systems for improved operational performance, and dispatch and operation control [16-20]. Different generation sources may also help each other to achieve higher total energy efficiency and/or improved performance. For instance, a fuel cell/microturbine combined-cycle system can better utilize the energy available in the fuel to achieve a significantly higher overall system efficiency than either source can possibly achieve [21-23], or the response of an energy source with slower dynamic response (e.g., wind or FC) can be enhanced by the addition of a storage device with faster dynamics (such as a battery bank, supercapacitor, or flywheel) to meet different types of load requirements, e.g. slowly varying loads and fast load transients [24-26]. Storage is an integral part of a hybrid RE/AE power generation system. Capacity-oriented energy storage technologies, such as pumped hydroelectric systems, compressed air energy storage (CAES), and hydrogen storage, generally do not have fast response time and are used for long term energy storage/release such as managing slow load variations. On the other hand, access-oriented storage devices with fast response time, such as batteries, flywheels, supercapacitors, and superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES), are used for responding to short-time disturbances, such as fast load transients and for power quality issues. References [27, 28] give a comprehensive explanation of the performance, purpose, and promise of different storage technologies. Table I gives a summary of different RE/AE power generation technologies and different energy storage schemes which may be used in hybrid systems. Any combination of the RE/AE power generation technologies, along with proper storage and possibly combined with a conventional generation technology, e.g. a diesel generator could form a hybrid energy system. For example, a hybrid system could have any combination of wind, PV, MH, MT, conventional diesel generator, storage battery, and FC-electrolyzer hydrogen storage in grid-connected or stand-alone configuration, often referred to as a microgrid.
TABLE I DIFFERENT RE/AE POWER GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES AND ENERGY
STORAGE DEVICES

strategies are needed for sizing and for power dispatch from the energy sources to make the entire system sustainable to the maximum extent, while facilitating maximum reduction in environmental emissions, and at the same time minimizing cost of energy production. The optimization problem can therefore be multi-objective, sometimes with conflicting objectives, and therefore complex. In such cases, only a global optimal point, as a trade-off between several local optimal points corresponding to the different objectives, may be achieved. Such optimization problems are difficult (if not impossible) to solve using analytic techniques. Heuristic multi-objective optimization techniques [29-31] and goal-oriented multiagent systems (MAS) [32-34] have shown potential to solve such problems. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Hybrid energy system configurations, unit sizing and energy storage systems are discussed in Section II. Energy management and control are presented in Section III. Statistics on current status and future trend of renewable power generation and sample applications of hybrid RE/AE systems and microgrids around the world are given in Section IV. Section V presents some critical challenges facing the wide-spread deployment of RE/AE power generation technologies and vision for future research in this area. Section V concludes the paper. II. HYBRID ENERGY SYSTEM CONFIGURATION A. Integration Schemes RE/AE sources have different operating characteristics; it is therefore essential to have a well-defined and standardized framework/procedure for connecting them to form a hybrid system, or more widely a microgrid, where a local cluster of DG sources, energy storage, and loads are integrated together and capable of operating autonomously [35]. A robust microgrid should also have plug-and-play operation capability. Adapted from the concept widely used in computer science and technology, plug-and-play operation here means a device (a DG, an energy storage system, or a controllable load) capable of being added into an existing system (microgrid) without requiring system reconfiguration to perform its designed function, namely, generating power, providing energy storage capacity, or carrying out load control. A suitable system configuration and a proper interfacing circuit [also called power electronic building block (PEBB)] may be necessary to achieve the plug-and-play function of a DG system [36, 37]. There are many ways to integrate different AE power generation sources to form a hybrid system. The methods can be generally classified into three categories: DC-coupled, AC-coupled, and hybrid-coupled [38][41]. The AC coupled scheme can further be classified into power frequency AC (PFAC)-coupled and high frequency AC (HFAC)-coupled systems [42]. These methods are briefly reviewed below. 1) DC-Coupled Systems. In a DC-coupled configuration, shown in Fig. 1, the different AE sources are connected to a DC bus through appropriate power electronic (PE) interfacing circuits. The DC sources may be connected to the DC bus directly if appropriate. If there are any DC loads, they can also

Main RE/AE technologies Biomass Geothermal Hydro/microhydro Oceon tidal/wave Solar PV/thermal Wind Fuel cell Microturbine

Energy storage types Battery Compressed air Flywheel Hydrogen Pumped hydro SMES Supercapacitor Thermal

The outputs from various generation sources of a hybrid energy system need to be coordinated and controlled to realize their full benefits. Proper optimization techniques and control

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3 be connected to the DC bus directly, or through DC/DC converters, to achieve appropriate DC voltage for the DC loads. The system can supply power to the AC loads (50 or 60 Hz), or be interfaced to a utility grid through an inverter, which can be designed and controlled to allow bi-directional power flow. The DC coupling scheme is simple and no synchronization is needed to integrate the different energy sources, but it also has its own drawbacks. For instance, if the system inverter is out-of-service, then the whole system will not be able to supply AC power. To avoid this situation, it is possible to connect several inverters with lower power rating in parallel, in which case synchronization of the output voltage of the different inverters, or synchronization with the grid, if the system is grid-connected, is needed. A proper power sharing control scheme is also required to achieve a desired load distribution among the different inverters [43].
DC Bus DC Loads AC Energy Source(s) AC/DC AC Bus 60/50 Hz Utility Grid DC/AC AC Loads
DC Energy Source (s) DC/AC

efficiency and reduced cost. On the other hand, control and energy management might be more complicated than for the DC- and AC-coupled schemes.
PFAC Bus AC Energy Source(s) AC/AC (if needed)

AC Loads

DC Energy Source(s)

DC/AC

AC/DC

DC Loads

Storage System

Bi-directional converter

60 / 50 Hz Utility Grid

(a)
HFAC Bus AC Energy Source (s) AC/AC (if needed)

HFAC Loads PFAC Bus DC Bus DC / AC AC / DC DC Loads PFAC Loads 60/ 50 Hz Utility Grid

DC Energy Source(s)

DC/DC (if needed)

Storage System

Bi-directional converter

Storage System

Proper PE Circuit

(b)
Fig. 2. Schematic of AC-coupled hybrid energy system: (a) PFAC, (b) HFAC.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a DC-coupled hybrid energy system.

2) AC-Coupled Systems. AC coupling can be divided into two sub-categories; PFAC-coupled and HFACcoupled systems. The schematic of PFAC-coupled systems is shown in Fig. 2 (a), where the different energy sources are integrated through their own power electronic interfacing circuits to a power frequency AC bus. Coupling inductors may also be needed between the power electronic circuits and the AC bus to achieve desired power flow management. The schematic of HFAC-coupled systems is shown in Fig. 2 (b). In this scheme, the different energy sources are coupled to a HFAC bus, where HFAC loads are connected to. This configuration has been used mostly in applications with HFAC (e.g., 400 Hz) loads, such as in airplanes, vessels, submarines, and in space station applications [4], [44], [45]. In both PFAC and HFAC systems, DC power can be obtained through AC/DC rectification. The HFAC configuration can also include a PFAC bus and utility grid (through an AC/AC or a DC/AC converter), to which regular AC loads can be connected. 3) Hybrid-Coupled Systems. Instead of connecting all the DG sources to just a single DC or AC bus, as discussed previously, the different DG sources can be connected to the DC or AC bus of the hybrid system. Fig. 3 shows a hybrid-coupled system, where DG resources are connected to the DC bus and/or AC bus. In this configuration, some energy sources can be integrated directly without extra interfacing circuits. As a result, the system can have higher energy

DC Bus Non- PFAC Energy Source (s )

DC/ DC (if needed) DC Loads

PFAC Bus

AC / DC

60/ 50 Hz Utility Grid

DC Energy Source(s )

DC/ DC (if needed)

DC/AC

Storage System

Bi- directional Converter

PFAC Energy Source (s )

AC Loads

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of a hybrid-coupled hybrid energy system.

Different coupling schemes find their own appropriate applications. If major generation sources of a hybrid system generate DC power, and there are also substantial amount of DC loads, then a DC-coupled system may be a good choice. On the other hand, if the main power sources generate AC (with reasonable power quality for the grid and the connected loads), then an AC-coupled system is a good option. If the major power sources of a hybrid system generate a mixture of AC and DC power, then a hybrid-coupled integration scheme may be considered. It is worth mentioning that the power electronic interfacing circuits in Figs. 2 and 3 can be made as modular

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4 building blocks, which will give the systems more flexibility and scalability. B. Unit Sizing and Technology Selection Component sizing of hybrid RE/AE systems is important and has been studied extensively, e.g. [7, 11, 16, 17, 18, 46]. Selection of the most suitable generation technologies (i.e., suitable mix of RE/AE/conventional sources) for a particular application is also equally important. Available application software can be used to properly select generation technologies and their sizes for specific applications. For example, with the aid of HOMER software, developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) [47], a hybrid RE/AE system can be designed; and with the aid of the Distributed Energy Resource-Customer Adaption Model (DER-CAM) software, developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) [20, 48], optimal technology selection for hybrid systems (to operate as independent microgrids) can be achieved. Unit sizing and technology selection can sometimes be as straightforward as meeting certain simple requirements such as using the available generation technology and not exceeding the equipment power rating, or it can be as complex as satisfying several constraints and achieving several objectives to maximum extent at the same time. Normally, based on available statistical information about generation, load, financial parameters (e.g., interest rate), geographic factors, desired system reliability, cost requirements, and other case specific information, generation technologies and their sizes can be optimized to satisfy specific objective functions, such as minimizing environmental impact, installation and operating costs, payback periods on investment, and/or maximizing reliability. Power system optimization methods such as linear programming (LP) [49], interior-point-method (IPM) [50], and heuristic methods such as genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization (PSO) can be used for component sizing and energy management of hybrid RE/AE systems [51-56]. These techniques are especially attractive when multiple objectives are to be met, some of which may be conflicting, e.g. minimizing cost, maximizing system availability and efficiency, and minimizing carbon emission. C. Storage 1) Storage Diversity. Storage technology is critical for ensuring high levels of power quality and energy management of stationary hybrid renewable energy systems. The ideal storage technology would offer fast access to power whenever needed, provide high capacity of energy, have a long life expectancy, and is available at a competitive cost. However, there is no energy storage technology currently available that can meet all these desirable characteristics simultaneously. In this section the different types of energy storage devices and systems are covered without going into the details of operation of any specific device. The operational performance and applications of energy storage devices for advanced power applications (also, equally suited for hybrid RE/AE power generation system applications) are, for example, discussed in [27, 28]. 2) Storage Types. In analogy to data storage in computer engineering, a classification in terms of access and capacity orientation may also be considered for energy storage [57]. Among the different types of storage given in Table I, supercapacitors, flywheels, and SMES offer fast access to the stored energy, have a very high cycle life of charge and discharge operations and very high roundtrip efficiency on the order of 95 %. However, the cost per unit of stored energy is also very high. Therefore, all three technologies can be classified as access-oriented and support power quality. The usage of SMES can here only be economically justified for applications involving comparatively high levels of power. Batteries could also be classified as high-power and/or high-energy types depending on their design. However, in general, their cycle life of charge/discharge is shorter than the high-access energy storage devices explained above. A promising capacity-oriented energy storage technology is the flow battery. In conventional batteries chemical energy is stored in reactants, placed near the electrodes inside the battery cell, but in flow batteries chemical energy is stored in the electrolyte solutions stored in two tanks outside the battery cell stacks. As the solution is pumped to circulate from one storage tank, through a cell stack, to the second tank, ion exchange takes place through the cell porous membrane, and electrons flow through the load to generate electrical power. Several different flow battery chemistries have been developed for MW/MWh-level utility applications [58, 59]. The available electrolyte chemistries include zinc-bromine flow batteries (ZBFB) and vanadium redox batteries (VRB). Other chemistries are under development. An advantage of flow batteries is that their power and energy capacity can be designed independently. A battery power rating can be increased by increasing the cell area where energy conversion takes place, i.e. by increasing the number of cell stacks, while its energy capacity can be increased by using larger volume of electrolyte solutions in larger tanks. Furthermore, flow batteries can be stored and shipped completely discharged as the reaction only takes place when the electrolyte circulation pumps are turned on. Conventional lead-acid batteries are the least expensive for hybrid energy system applications, but they suffer from a low cycle life. Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) batteries and those with Sodium Sulfur (NaS) chemistry offer significant improvements over lead-acid batteries. Popular commercial applications for Ni-MH batteries have included usage in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and distributed renewable energy systems. NaS batteries have been used in Japan in distributed energy systems and to firm up wind energy in the grid on a large scale, up to 34 MW of power and 245 MWh of energy [60]. The operating temperature of NaS batteries is of the order of 300 to 350 C, which does not make them attractive for mobile applications. This is in contrast with Zinc-Bromine batteries that operate near ambient temperature. With increasing interest in electric vehicles, the development of Lithium-Ion batteries has received a significant boost. They can be well designed as high-power or high-energy batteries. While this is also possible for other battery chemistries, the Li-Ion type allows reaching particularly high power-to-weight or high energy-to-weight densities. Compared with other commercially available batteries, conventional Li-Ion batteries

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5 excel in performance with the exception of cost and life expectancy. Since the cost is relatively high, the main interest relates to mobile applications. Through the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) concept, Li-Ion batteries are expected to appear as active resources in distribution networks [61]. Hydrogen can serve as an energy carrier for capacity-oriented energy storage. Hydrogen may be produced through electrolysis, where water is split into its component parts of hydrogen and oxygen. The electrolysis can be powered from renewable sources. Hydrogen may also be derived through steam reforming from methane or natural gas. The amount of power that can be provided from hydrogen depends on the size of the fuel cell stacks. Hydrogen is flexible in that it can be stored in tanks without disturbing self-discharging effects and can also be used to fill the tanks of fuel cell cars quickly. In stationary applications that use electrolyzers to produce hydrogen and fuel cells to generate electric power, the comparatively low round-trip efficiency is known to be a disadvantage. Very popular in large-scale power systems is the usage of pumped hydro energy storage. It relies on the availability of a suitable geology and is therefore not considered further here. Compressed air energy storage is also not considered for the same reasons. In Table II, the storage types that can be considered for hybrid energy systems and have been discussed above are classified. None of the technologies relies on local geology. Whether a battery is designed for high-power or high-energy depends on its intended application.
Table II. Classification of storage for hybrid energy systems.

has been common practice to use just one storage technology. Normally, batteries are used and designed for the intended usage. For smaller-scale applications, as in single residential hybrid energy systems, the Ni-MH battery technology would be an appropriate candidate. For larger-scale applications involving the compensation of power from wind farms or multiple residences, flow batteries or NaS batteries have shown to be practical in Japan. V2G concepts are most interesting with Li-Ion batteries [61].

Fig. 4. Multi-level energy storage.

III. CONTROLS AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT Proper control of hybrid energy systems with multiple RE/AE/conventional-DGs and energy storage (operating as microgrids) is critical to achieving the highest system reliability and operation efficiency [32]. Typically, a control (or energy management) system needs to determine and assign active and reactive output power dispatch of each energy source while keeping its output voltage and frequency at the desired level. Generally, the control structure of such systems can be classified into three categories; centralized, distributed, and hybrid control paradigms. In all three cases, each energy source is assumed to have its own (local) controller which can determine optimal operation of the corresponding unit based on current information. If multiple (and at times conflicting) objectives need to be met, and all energy sources cannot operate optimally, a compromised (global optimal) operating decision may be achieved. A brief description of each control paradigm follows. A. Centralized Control Paradigm In a centralized control paradigm, the measurement signals of all energy units in a group, i.e. a microgrid, are sent to a centralized controller, as shown in Fig. 5. The centralized controller acts as an energy supervisor [66, 67] and makes decisions on control actions based on all measured signals and a set of pre-determined constraints and objectives. It will prioritize and manage energy utilization among the various energy sources of the microgrid [68-70]. The objective functions could be conflicting; for example, minimizing system operation and maintenance costs and environmental impact (carbon footprint), and maximizing system efficiency at the same time may be competing objectives and could make solving the problem even more difficult. Often, multi-objective problems do not have a single solution but a complete non-dominated or Pareto set, which includes the alternatives representing potential compromise solutions among the objectives. This could make a range of choices available to decision makers and provide them with the trade-off information among the multiple objectives effectively [68]. The control signals are then sent to the corresponding energy

storage class

storage technology Supercapacitor Flywheel SMES High-power battery High-energy battery Hydrogen energy storage

access-oriented

capacity-oriented

3)Multi-level Storage. In computer systems, the access-oriented storage serves as a cache for the capacity-oriented storage. This type of integration has allowed creating a storage system that offers fast and frequent access to the stored medium through the cache while also offering a high capacity of storage at a low cost. The concept of cache control can also be designed for the benefit of power and energy systems [57]. For the purpose of illustration, a multi-level energy storage consisting of an access-oriented storage serving as the cache for the parallel-connected capacity-oriented storage is shown in Fig. 4 [62-64]. To make sure that the access-oriented storage deals with fast fluctuations of power, the cache control can be realized through filtering to separate the high-frequency power fluctuations from the slowly-varying and steady-state power spectrum [64]. Alternatively, knowledge-based control has been proposed for this purpose. The knowledge-based system uses two neural networks to capture a set of rules [65]. While the system integration shown in Fig. 4 offers a high level of performance in the design of hybrid energy systems, it

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6 sources to output proper power. The advantage of this control structure is that the multi-objective energy management system can achieve global optimization based on all available information. However, the scheme suffers from heavy computation burden and is subject to single-point failures.
Centralized Centralized Controller Controller

through distributed control. This way, the computational burden of each controller is reduced, and single-point failure problems are mitigated.
Centralized Centralized Controller Controller Centralized Centralized Controller Controller

Local Local Controller Controller

Local Local Controller Controller Local Local Controller Controller Local Local Controller Controller

Local Local Controller Controller

Local Local Controller Controller

Local Local Controller Controller

Energy Energy Resource Resource

Energy Energy Resource Resource Energy Energy Resource Resource

Energy Energy Resource Resource

Energy Energy Resource Resource

Energy Energy Resource Resource

Energy Energy Resource Resource

Fig. 7. Illustration of a hybrid centralized and distributed control paradigm.

Fig. 5. Illustration of a centralized control paradigm.

B. Distributed Control Paradigm In a fully-distributed control paradigm, the measurement signals of the energy sources of the hybrid system are sent to their corresponding local controller, as shown in Fig. 6 [71-73]. The controllers communicate with one another to make compromised (Pareto) operating decisions and achieve global optimization. An advantage of this scheme is the ease of plug-and-play operation. With this control structure, the computation burden of each controller is greatly reduced, and there are no single-point failure problems; its disadvantage is still the potential complexity of its communication system. Intelligent (model-free) algorithms, such as fuzzy logic, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and their hybrid combinations are potential tools for solving such problems, e.g. [71-73].
Local Local Controller Controller Local Local Controller Controller Local Local Controller Controller

A hybrid control scheme, called multi-level control framework, is shown in Fig. 8 [78]. This scheme is similar to the hybrid control scheme discussed above with an additional supervisory (strategic) control level. At the operational level, basic decisions related to real-time operation are made, and actual control of each energy unit is performed based on the control objective(s) of the unit very rapidly, e.g., within a millisecond range. The tactical level aims to make operational decisions for a group of local control units or the entire subsystem, with a relatively higher time frame, e.g. in the range of seconds to minutes. Strategic decisions concerning the overall operation of the system, e.g. system startup or shutdown, are made at the top level [78]. Two-way communication exists among the different levels to execute decisions.

Strategic Level Strategic Level

Energy Energy Resource Resource

Energy Energy Resource Resource

Energy Energy Resource Resource

Tactical Level Tactical Level Supervisor Control Supervisor Control

Tactical Level Tactical Level Supervisor Control Supervisor Control

Fig. 6. Illustration of a distributed control paradigm.

A promising approach for distributed control problems is multiagent system (MAS) [34], [74]. MAS have been used, for example, for power system integration, restoration, reconfiguration, and power management of microgrids [32,33], [75-77]. A MAS may be distributed as coupled network of intelligent hardware and software agents that work together to achieve a global objective. C. Hybrid Centralized and Distributed Control Paradigm A more practical scheme, hybrid control paradigm, combines centralized and distributed control schemes, as shown in Fig. 7 [78], [79]. The distributed energy sources are grouped within a microgrid; centralized control is used within each group, while distributed control is applied to a set of groups. With such a hybrid energy management scheme, local optimization is achieved via centralized control within each group, while global coordination among the different groups is achieved

Operational Level Operational Level Operational Level Operational Level Operational Level Operational Level (Individual Control Unit) (Individual Control Unit) (Individual Control Unit) (Individual Control Unit) (Individual Control Unit) (Individual Control Unit)

Fig. 8. Illustration of a multi-level control approach to hybrid power systems.

IV. CURRENT STATUS, FUTURE TREND AND SAMPLE APPLICATIONS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION In this section a brief overview and growth statistics of past, current and projection into the future of renewable-based electricity generation along with some sample applications of hybrid renewable energy power generation systems around the world are presented. A. Current Status and Future Trend of Renewable Power Generation RE/AE has been the fastest growing source of electricity generation around the world in the past decade. According to the projection of the US Energy Information Administration

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7 (EIA), non-hydro renewable power generation will continue its growth well into the future. Fig. 9 shows the history, current trend, and future projection profiles of non-hydro renewable generation worldwide compared to total renewable and total electricity generation [80]. Fig. 10 shows the corresponding percentages of non-hydro renewable and total renewable generation over the total electricity generation in the same time period shown in Fig. 9 [81]. According to these figures, non-hydro renewable generation has had swift growth in the past decade. This growth is expected to continue in the next two decades. The non-hydro renewable electricity generation increased by more than 220% in eight years, from 240 billion kWh in 2000 to 535 billion kWh in 2008, resulting in an annual increase of 10.54% [80]. EIA predicts that non-hydro renewable generation will keep a high growth rate (of about 7% annually) in the next two decades and will reach 2302 billion kWh by 2030 [81]. Fig. 11 shows the US non-hydro renewable generation profiles (by type) between the years 2000 and 2009, and the EIAs prediction to year 2035 [81], [82]. The renewable energy generation has seen its fastest growth: from 85.7 billion kWh in 2000 to 152.2 billion kWh in 2009, at an average annual increase of 6.6%. According to this prediction, the annual growth will be higher through 2030, at which time about 11% of the electricity generated in the US will be from non-hydroelectric renewable sources. At present, most non-hydroelectric renewable technologies (with the exception of bulk wind generation) are still not economically competitive with fossil fuel based generation sources, and federal and local governmental incentives are often a primary motive for installing renewable generation systems. A majority of US states have set a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that set the goal of generating certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources. In most cases, the RPS set by the states is far greater than the 11% renewable by 2030, predicted by EIA. For instance, California has set its RPS to 33% of its total electricity generation from renewables by 2030 [83]. DOE has also been very aggressive in pushing for electricity generation from renewables and has envisioned a scenario of 20% electricity from wind by 2030 [84]. Even this figure is lower than many of the RPSs set by the states. As the penetration level of renewable generation (in particular wind and solar PV) will increase in an unprecedented pace, given the intermittent nature of the energy resources, the issues associated with grid integration of these technologies become more challenging. In general, control and power management of these generation sources will be easier when they operate independently or in a microgrid setting, together with the use of energy storage (discussed in Section II). When used in such manner, energy source hybridization is an effective approach that can mitigate many of the problems associated with the intermittent nature of the energy resources to certain extent and will increase system reliability. This issue has been extensively reported in the literature, e.g. [16] [18], [20], [47], [56], [67]. The rest of this section gives an overview of some sample applications of hybrid RE/AE systems around the world. Experiences in developing hybrid RE/AE systems are indicative of improved system performance and reliability, and reduced system cost.
40000

(Billion kWh)
35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 2000 01 02 03 04 05

History

Projection

Non-Hydroelectric Renewable Total Renewable Total Electricity

06

07

08

15

20

25

30

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Fig. 9. History and future projection profiles of world renewable generation and the total electricity generation [80], [81].

25.00 20.00 15.00 10.00 5.00 0.00

2000 01

% over the total electricity generation History Projection

Non-Hydroelectric Renewable Total Renewable

02

03

04

05

06

07

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Fig. 10. The percentage of world renewable generation over the total electricity generation [80], [81].

600 500
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History

Projection

12 10 8 6 4 2 0
% over theTotoal Electricity

400 300 200 100 0

Geothermal Solar,Tide and Wave Wind Biomass and Waste % over theTotoal Electricity

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 20 30 35
Fig. 11. US Renewable generation profiles [81], [82].

B. Sample Applications around the World The area of hybrid RE/AE systems implementation is very dynamic and various demonstration projects on such systems

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8 have been (and are currently being) conducted around the world for different purposes, such as electrification of remote villages, remote telecommunication units, or in the form of microgrids for clean and secure electricity production purposes in urban centers. Inclusion of all reported projects is beyond the scope of this paper. In this section, seven sample applications of hybrid RE/AE systems and microgrid test facilities (deploying hybrid RE/AE systems) from around the world, which vary in purpose as well as in system configuration, are briefly summarized. For further information about these projects and their actual configuration, the reader is referred to the reference(s) given for each system. 1. Utsira Island, Norway: An autonomous hybrid wind-hydrogen-fuel-cell system with flywheel and battery storage and a hydrogen engine supplies power to the island residents [85], [86]. 2. Kahua Ranch, Hawaii Hydrogen Power Park, USA: This hybrid wind-PV-electrolyzer-FC energy system was initially developed as a part of Hawaii Hydrogen Power Park program for technology validation and research. The system provides emission-free electricity to Kahua Ranch located on the Hawaii Island [87]. 3. Starkenburger Lodge, Austria: A completely off-grid hybrid PV-storage system with CHP-based engine supplies the power demand of the remote Alpine Lodge in Austrian Alps [88]. 4. Fuel cells and Energy Networks of Electricity, heat, and hydrogen, Japan (Project NEXT 21): More than 5,000 PEMFCs (fueled by natural gas) were installed in residential households on an experimental basis by the end of 2009. The PEMFC units provide electricity and hot water to the households [89]-[91]. 5. The Kythnos Island microgrid project, Greece: The system is a single-phase PV-storage-diesel-engine microgrid installed on in the island to provide uninterruptible power to the island residents. The system is used to test centralized and decentralized control and power management of the microgrid in islanded mode [92]. 6. The Hachinohe microgrid project, Japan: The purpose of this renewable-energy-based microgrid, built in the urban city of Hachinohe, is to investigate its grid integration and stabilization, as well as control and reliable operation in island mode [93]. 7. Wind2H2 Project, National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), USA: The Wind2H2 system was initially approved for demonstration operation in March 2007. The system produces hydrogen directly from RE sources through electrolyzers. The generated hydrogen is stored in high pressure storage tanks and can be used both as a transportation fuel and as an energy storage medium [94]. Table III gives a list of components (generation sources, etc.) and their capacity, storage type, integration scheme (bus types, AC/DC/hybrid), and control paradigm (central, distributed, or hybrid) used in each project. Central control paradigm is applied to all projects except the Kythnos Island Project in Greece, where droop control is applied for load sharing among the PV inverters of the system. The fast response function of the hybrid systems is realized either by access-oriented energy storage devices or by fast-acting controllable generators. In 2008 US DOE awarded nine renewable and distributed system integration (RDSI) projects aimed at modernizing the US utility grid [95]. In addition, there are many active microgrid demonstration projects around the world integrating RE/AE and conventional energy sources. The detailed descriptions of several such projects appear in [96], [97]. V. CHALLENGES AND VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF RE/AE POWER GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES In this section a partial list of challenges facing the wide-spread deployment of RE/AE power generation technologies and future visionary research areas are presented. A. Challenges Despite their significant benefits to the environment and great long-term potential for sustainable energy development, hybrid RE/AE systems are currently in an economic disadvantage position because of their high installation costs compared with traditional electricity generation technologies. In the majority of cases, the incentives from federal and state governments and local utilities are necessary to make a hybrid system economically viable, which, in turn, makes the incentive policies so critical to the wide-spread deployment of such systems [98]. Energy storage is necessary for stand-alone hybrid RE/AE systems to have continuous, reliable power supply with desired power quality. Energy storage is also one of the enabling technologies to accommodate grid-scale renewable generation sources into power systems at high penetration. Among the different energy storage techniques discussed in Section II.C, only pumped hydroelectric storage and underground CAES are the two technologies which can provide a competitive system cost [99]. However, they are heavily geographically constrained and only suitable for large grid-scale energy storage applications. On the other hand, batteries are the most common energy storage technologies for distributed hybrid RE/AE systems. Though the requirement of energy density and specific energy are not so critical to stationary energy storage applications, system cost and durability are still the key barriers for battery storage systems. Moreover, it is a very challenging task to accurately gauge and estimate the state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH) of batteries [100-105], in particular, as electric vehicles are being put on the road around the world. Therefore, new battery technologies deserve more research attention and efforts to improve their durability and performance, and lower their cost. B. Vision for the Future A partial list of the future research topic areas, which can impact RE/AE power generation and management, are given below:

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TABLE III EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS OF HYBRID SYSTEMS AROUND THE WORLD [85] [97]

Equipment Wind turbine Photovoltaic generation Battery

Utsira Island 600 kW x 2

Hawaii Island 7.5 KW 10 kW

NEXT21, Osaka

Starkenburg Lodge

Kythnos Island

Hachinohe 8 kW x 2, 2 kW x 2

NWTC, NREL 100 kW

5 kW

10 kW + 2 kW (I&C) 53 kWh + 32 kWh (I&C)

50 kW x 2, 10 kW x 3

35 kWh

85 kWh (1780 Ah, 48V)

57.6 kWh (1200 Ah, 48V)

100 kWh

Flywheel Fuel cell Electrolyser H2 production Hydrogen tank

5 kWh 10 kW 10 Nm3 /h, 48 kW 2400 Nm3 (12m3 x 20 Mpa) 55 kW (hydrogen) 3.6 kW 5.5 kW 370 L x 1, 200L x 2 5 kW AC X X Centralized DC X X Centralized AC ----Centralized AC --X Centralized AC --X Hybrid AC --X Centralized AC --X Centralized Capacity N. A. 5 kW 0.2 Nm3 /h (PEM) 1.5 Nm3 x 1 50 Nm3 at 1.2 Mpa 14 kW (liquid gas) 5 kVA (diesel) 170 kW (bio-gas) x 3 1294 Nm3 (6.5 m3 x 24 Mpa) 50 kW (hydrogen) 0.7 kW x 3 40 kW

Engine Inverter Compressor Hot water tanks Load bank Bus (AC/DC/Hybrid) Storage Access oriented Capacity oriented Control

x Energy Management and Standardization: As the deployment of hybrid RE/AE systems in the form of independent microgrid increases, the need for real-time energy management of such systems, and robust communication between the individual energy sources of the microgrid become an important task and therefore deserve further attention. Furthermore, systematic approaches and standardization, e.g. IEEE Standard 1547 [106] and IEC 61850 [107], are needed for efficient and safe deployment of such systems. x DC Distribution: With the development of modern equipment and household appliances that use dc voltage, several researchers have explored the virtue of dc Microgrid for localized loads and the idea of completely rewiring homes to run on dc, e.g. [108,109]. This venue deserves further attention to explore its technical and economic feasibility. x New Semiconductor Devices: The rugged electronic power switching technology using Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride semiconductors is rapidly advancing [110]. Devices made out of these materials can be operated at much higher frequencies, and such operations can lead to compact inverters, choppers and other interface systems, which can enhance the overall performance of hybrid RE/AE systems. As these devices become available, research efforts are needed to integrate them into the evolving hybrid systems. x Excitonic Solar Cells: This class of solar cells uses Titania nanotube arrays [111, 112] shows considerable promise to harness a larger fraction of the solar spectrum. The availability of this class of devices should be closely monitored for potential use in RE/AE systems. x Nanotechnology: In general, the application of nanotechnology to improve various components of hybrid

systems should be a constant topic of research and investigation. x Hydrogen: Last but not least, the production of hydrogen and hydrogen economy should be a constant future research topic. A breakthrough in this area could revolutionize the way we live.

V. CONCLUSIONS This paper provides a summary of available approaches and those currently under research for optimal design of hybrid RE/AE energy systems. Different approaches for system configuration, unit sizing, and control and energy management of hybrid systems are presented. Current Status and Future Trend of RE Power Generation, the challenges facing the wide-spread deployment of RE/AE systems, and research vision for the future of RE/AE power generation technologies have been discussed. The comprehensive list of references at the end of the paper is aimed to help interested researchers in the design and power management of hybrid RE/AE energy systems with focus on energy sustainability. REFERENCES R. Ramakumar, H. J. Allison and W. L. Hughes, "Prospects for Tapping Solar Energy on a Large Scale," Solar Energy 16(2): 107 - 115, October 1974. R. Ramakumar, H. J. Allison and W. L. Hughes, "Solar Energy Conversion and Storage Systems for the Future," IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-94, No. 6, pp. 1926-1934, November/December 1975. S. Hozumi, Development of hybrid solar systems using solar thermal, photovoltaics, and wind energy, International Journal of Solar Energy, vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 257-80, 1986.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Dr. Zhehua Jiang to the Control and Energy Management part of the paper and his input to the general structure of the paper.

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