Least-Cost Sizing and Multi-Criteria Assessment of Hybrid Solar–Wind–Hydrogen Systems Under Climate–Resource Sensitivity Scenarios

Renewable hybrid energy systems combining photovoltaic, wind, battery, and hydrogen energy generation technology have the potential to increase the reliability of off-grid or weak-grid electricity systems; however, the optimal configuration of such systems is based on considerations of cost, resource variability, emissions, and adequacy. The present work develops a design-space exploration approach for a hybrid energy systems architecture in HOMER Pro software and post-optimal multi-objective robustness analysis of the results. Four different architectural configurations are assessed using chronological energy-balance simulation, life-cycle cost minimization, feasibility screening, and climate–resource stress tests involving variations in solar radiation, wind speed, ambient temperature, and electricity demand. The optimal combination is the PV–wind–battery–electrolyzer–hydrogen storage–fuel cell configuration, made up of a 900 kW PV system, 350 kW of wind power, a 1.85 MWh battery capacity, a 240 kW electrolyzer, 520 kg hydrogen storage and a 180 kW fuel cell. In the baseline scenario, it produces an LCOE of 0.246 USD/kWh, an NPC of 4.38 million USD, a renewable percentage of 98.7%, a CO2 emission rate of 18 t/y and an unmet load of 0.30%. But under the compound resource constraint, it generates an LCOE of 0.254 USD/kWh, while the unmet load stays under 0.50%. From the above findings, it becomes clear that battery–hydrogen energy storage is a better compromise than battery-alone or hydrogen-only storage within the tested design space.