Dr. Peter Lilienthal examines use cases in HOMER Pro for microgrid systems that combine wind and solar in hybrid microgrids.

1. Combining Wind and Solar for LCOE
Solutions in Hybrid Microgrids
Dr. Peter Lilienthal
CEO, HOMER Energy
Webinar, January 24, 2019

2. The Future of Power
The HOMER® software is a platform to accelerate the transition to clean distributed power

3. 4 Kinds of Microgrids
•HOMER Pro for off-grid microgrids
1. Island Utilities
 Thousands of diesel-powered utility systems
2. Energy Access
 1.3 billion people without power
•HOMER Grid for grid-connected DG & microgrids
3. Resilience
 Sandy changed our view of critical infrastructure
4. Backup of unreliable utilities
 Millions of diesel generators

4. Military Bases
Developing
Country On-
Grid
Forward
Operating
Bases
Developing
Country Off-
Grid
Fuel
Savings
Reduced
Emissions
Renewable Energy
& Electric Vehicle
Grid Integration
EcotourismCampuses
Islands
Mines
Emergency Services
Reliability
Microgrids & Their Value Propositions
Telecomm

5. Too Many Choices
Hydro
Geothermal
Smart grids
Micro-grids

6. What is best?
•It depends on:
oResources
oLoads
oEquipment prices
oEquipment performance
•A confused mind says “No!”
•HOMER fits the pieces together

7. HOMER as a communication tool
Renewable Advocates
Diesel Mechanics
HOMER
Model
Power
Engineers
Financiers
HOMER bridges different worlds

8. HOMER Energy
• 1992 – 2008 at NREL
• 2009: HOMER Energy created with exclusive license
• >250,000 people have used HOMER
• >90,000 opted-in to hear from us on hybrid system design
• De facto global standard for microgrid design
• 3 main markets
o Energy Access
o Island and remote utilities
o Grid-connected
• > 50,000 projects modeled since 2014
Designing Off-Grid/Mini-Grid systems for over 25 years

9. Example HOMER Analysis
• Ambon Indonesia

10. HOMER shows that wind reduces LCOE
even at modest windspeeds
Also reduces diesel runtime, battery sizing, and capital cost by 50% or more

11. Hybrid Systems
•Value of Diversity
•Reliability
•Complementary resources
oDaily variations
oSeasonal variations
oRandom variations

12. Seasonal Complementarity
Island power system in Crete

13. Why wind?
•Higher capacity factors
•Evening production
•Lower LCOE in good wind regimes
•Makes high renewable penetrations more achievable