Techno-Economic Assessment of a Hybrid Solar-Wind Energy System for a Small Community in Al Madinah, Saudi Arabia: Meeting Critical Load Support in Al Madinah

Abstract

The availability of electricity to sufficiently power the important infrastructure in urban communities in hot climates is a pressing issue especially during times of blackouts. This thesis is a techno-economic evaluation of a hybrid solar-wind-storage system that will be used to protect the Minimum Critical Load (MCL) in Al Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia. The study fills one of the research gaps by not focusing the discussion on how much renewable penetration is possible, but rather, how the essential sectors including healthcare, public safety, and community services will be resilient in case of grid disruptions. It is a methodology that combines load profiling of a small community representative, in depth design and simulation of the system with HOMER Pro in both grid- connected and off-grid conditions. Photovoltaic (PV) arrays, wind turbines (WT) and battery energy storage systems (BESS) were also optimized to balance between technical performance, economic viability and environmental impact. Findings indicate that the combination of solar and wind power will greatly decrease the amount of storage overcapacity and still provide a steady supply to the most important points of demand. The grid-connected option delivered better economic performance, as it had less Net Present Cost (NPC) and Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), but the off-grid design provided complete autonomy at increased cost in the case of outages. The environmental analysis showed that there were massive decreases in greenhouse gas emissions relative to the traditional fossil- based systems, which is in line with the Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia. The study adds value to the literature as it presents one of the first comprehensive evaluations of hybrid renewable systems specifically applied to critically load resilience of a city located in the Middle East and in a hot climate. In addition to the technical and economic analysis, the results highlight the importance of hybrid architectures in enhancing the energy security of urban areas, minimizing the use of fossil fuels, and enabling the achievement of sustainable development objectives. Further studies are needed to understand sector-specific resilience approaches, incorporation of long-duration storage solutions, and policy tools to encourage renewable implementation that targets critical loads.