Safety Design of a Hybrid Wind-Solar Energy System for Rural Remote Areas in Costa Rica

Abstract

Although several kinds of energy generation systems have been investigated and introduced in Costa Rica, none were made on systems that use more than one energy source. The present work proposes a safety design of a hybrid wind-solar renewable energy system, designed to cover the energy demand in a governmental free housing at Martina Bustos, Liberia, Costa Rica. Twelve scaled models were designed. These are composed of a pole and one to four solar panels. Two commercial wind turbines, Airdolphin Mark-Zero/Pro and Zephyr 9000 were used to experimentally measure wind force on a wind tunnel at the Wind Engineering Research Center of the Tokyo Polytechnic University. Further, allowable stress design was calculated to determine the tower resistance to local buckling. Present results indicate that towers with 200 mm of the circumference and steel plates with 4.5 mm to 8 mm of thickness are considered safe from local buckling according to Japanese Industrial Standards. Energy generation calculation results show that four of the proposed models generate more than the average energy needed to supply electricity during a year at Martina Bustos to the specific house design.