An economical analysis of residential hybrid solar-wind power generators in Abu Dhabi

As a reaction to environmental footprint, high cost and long payback period of building renewable energy power plants, governments started to scale down renewable energy to the commercial and residential building entities. In this article, the feasibility of residential solar, wind, and hybrid solar-wind power generators to meet electricity demand to a typical villa in Abu Dhabi is analyzed. The evaluation is based on historical data for seasonal electrical consumption and seasonal observations of renewable energy sources (solar and wind). Economical metrics such as Annual worth (AW), Future worth (FW), Benefit to Cost Ratio (B/C) and Internal Rate of Return (IROR) methods are used to analyze the economics of the system. Based on these economic metrics both solar and hybrid systems prove feasibility with very slight margin. Wind system, however, does not prove any feasibility as a stand-alone system.