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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, and Z. Salameh

AbstractThis paper, prepared by a special task force of the

IEEE PES Renewable 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 widespread 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.
Index TermsEnergy management, energy storage, generation
unit sizing, hybrid energy systems, renewable power generation.

I. INTRODUCTION

HIS 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 (FCs) and microturbines (MTs)]. RE/AE generation
sources often come in the form of customized distributed

Manuscript received September 18, 2010; revised January 06, 2011; accepted
March 29, 2011. Date of publication May 27, 2011; date of current version
September 21, 2011.
M. H. Nehrir is with Montana State University-Bozeman, Bozeman, MT
59717 USA.
C. Wang is with Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202 USA.
K. Strunz is with Technical University of Berlin, Berlin 10587, Germany.
H. Aki is with AIST, Tsukuba, 305-8569, Japan.
R. Ramakumar is with Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078
USA.
J. Bing is with NEO Virtus Engineering, Inc., Littleton, MA 01460 USA.
Z. Miao is with the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620 USA.
Z. Salameh is with the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA 01854 USA.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSTE.2011.2157540

generation (DG) systems in grid-connected or standalone

configuration. FC and MT could also be considered renewable
power generation sources if their input fuel is obtained from
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
wind- or 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 standalone 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 worldwide, 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 RE resources
(e.g., wind, solar, ocean wave), hybrid combinations 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
seasonalbasis.Ingeneral,hybridsystemsconvertalltheresources
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

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TABLE I
DIFFERENT RE/AE POWER GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES
AND ENERGY STORAGE DEVICES

a variety of loads. Hybridization could result in increased

reliability; however, proper technology selection and 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 shorttime disturbances, such as fast load transients and for power
quality issues. References [27] and [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 standalone configuration, often referred to as a microgrid.
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
strategies are needed for sizing and for power dispatch from
the energy sources to make the entire system sustainable to the

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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 multiobjective, 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 multiobjective 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 the current
status and future trends 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 widespread deployment of
RE/AE power generation technologies and vision for future
research in this area. Section VI 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 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

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

controlled to allow bidirectional 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].
2) AC-Coupled Systems: AC coupling can be divided into
two subcategories: PFAC-coupled and HFAC-coupled systems.
The schematic of a PFAC-coupled system 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 an HFAC-coupled system is shown in
Fig. 2(b). In this scheme, the different energy sources are coupled to an HFAC bus, to which HFAC loads are connected. 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 efficiency and reduced cost. On the other
hand, control and energy management might be more complicated than for the dc- and ac-coupled schemes.
Different coupling schemes find their own appropriate applications. If major generation sources of a hybrid system generate
dc power, and there are also substantial amounts of dc loads,
then a dc-coupled system may be a good choice. On the other

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

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

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 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][18], and [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

NEHRIR et al.: REVIEW OF HYBRID RE/AE SYSTEMS FOR ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION

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 RE 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] and [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 round-trip 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

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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 RE 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 C to 350 C, which
does not make them attractive for mobile applications. This is in
contrast with zincbromine batteries that operate near ambient
temperature.
With increasing interest in electric vehicles, the development
of lithiumion 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
Liion type allows reaching particularly high power-to-weight
or high energy-to-weight densities. Compared with other commercially available batteries, conventional Liion batteries
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, Liion 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

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TABLE II
CLASSIFICATION OF STORAGE FOR HYBRID ENERGY SYSTEMS

Fig. 5. Illustration of a centralized control paradigm.

Fig. 4. Multilevel energy storage.

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 rely on local geology.
Whether a battery is designed for high-power or high-energy
depends on its intended application.
3) Multilevel 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 multilevel energy storage consisting of an accessoriented 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
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 Liion batteries [61].
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 predetermined 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, multiobjective problems do not have
a single solution but a complete nondominated 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

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397

Fig. 6. Illustration of a distributed control paradigm.

the trade-off information among the multiple objectives effectively [68].

The control signals are then sent to the corresponding energy
sources to output proper power. The advantage of this control
structure is that the multiobjective 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.

Fig. 7. Illustration of a hybrid centralized and distributed 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 plugand-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].
A promising approach for distributed control problems is
the multiagent system (MAS) [34], [74]. MAS has been used,
for example, for power system integration, restoration, reconfiguration, and power management of microgrids [32], [33],
[75][77]. An 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 through distributed control. This way, the computational burden of each
controller is reduced, and single-point failure problems are mitigated.
A hybrid control scheme, called multilevel 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

Fig. 8. Illustration of a multilevel control approach to hybrid power systems.

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.
IV. CURRENT STATUS, FUTURE TREND, AND SAMPLE
APPLICATIONS OF RE 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
RE 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 U.S. Energy Information Administration
(EIA), nonhydro renewable power generation will continue its
growth well into the future. Fig. 9 shows the history, current
trend, and future projection profiles of nonhydro renewable
generation worldwide compared to total renewable and total
electricity generation [80]. Fig. 10 shows the corresponding
percentages of nonhydro renewable and total renewable generation over the total electricity generation in the same time period
shown in Fig. 9 [81]. According to these figures, nonhydro
renewable generation has had swift growth in the past decade.

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Fig. 11. U.S. renewable generation profiles [81], [82].

Fig. 9. History and future projection profiles of world renewable generation

and the total electricity generation [80], [81].

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

This growth is expected to continue in the next two decades.

The nonhydro 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 nonhydro 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 U.S. nonhydro renewable generation profiles (by type) between the years 2000 and 2009, and the EIAs
prediction to year 2035 [81], [82]. The RE 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 U.S. is projected to be from nonhydroelectric renewable sources.
At present, most nonhydroelectric 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 U.S. states have set a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) which sets the goal of generating a 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 a
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 a 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.
B. Sample Applications Around the World
The area of hybrid RE/AE systems implementation is very
dynamic and various demonstration projects on such systems
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

NEHRIR et al.: REVIEW OF HYBRID RE/AE SYSTEMS FOR ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION

399

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

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

and a hydrogen engine supplies power to the island residents [85], [86].
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].
Starkenburger Lodge, Austria: A completely off-grid hybrid PV-storage system, including a CHP-based engine,
supplies the power demand of the remote Alpine Lodge
in the Austrian Alps [88].
Fuel cells and Energy Networks of Electricity, heat, and
hydrogen, Japan (Project NEXT 21): More than 5000
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].
The Kythnos Island microgrid project, Greece: The system
is a single-phase PV-storage-diesel-engine microgrid installed on 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].
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
islanded mode [93].
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, the U.S. DOE awarded nine renewable and
distributed system integration (RDSI) projects aimed at modernizing the U.S. 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] and [97].
V. CHALLENGES AND VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF RE/AE
POWER GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES
In this section, a partial list of challenges facing the widespread 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

400

local utilities are necessary to make a hybrid system economically viable, which, in turn, makes the incentive policies so critical to the widespread deployment of such systems [98].
Energy storage is necessary for standalone 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, is given below:
1) 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
important tasks 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.
2) 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.
3) 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.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 2, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011

4) Excitonic Solar Cells: This class of solar cells uses Titania nanotube arrays [111], [112], and 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.
5) Nanotechnology: In general, the application of nanotechnology to improve various components of hybrid systems
should be a constant topic of research and investigation.
6) 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.
VI. CONCLUSION
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 trends
of RE Power Generation, the challenges facing the widespread
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.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable contributions
of Dr. Z. Jiang to the Control and Energy Management part of
the paper and his input to the general structure of the paper. The
help and comments provided by C. Colson and A. Pourmousavi
(Ph.D. students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Montana State University) during the preparation of
the paper is also acknowledged.
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