Renewable Energy Sources for Isolated Self-sufficient Microgrids: Comparison of Solar and Wind Energy for UAE

Renewable energies are a fast growing sector, working towards satisfying global energy demands. With the advent of smart and microgrids the power production from such technologies has seen a boom in integrating with energy needs of today. This paper looks into the deployment of an isolated microgrid to power small settlements in remote locations. It performs an economic feasibility analysis of deployment of wind and solar energy to satisfy the energy requirements of these microgrids, as an alternative to using fossil fuel generators. The energy production is estimated using data analysis of wind and solar irradiation. Both solar and wind energy would be suitable for replacing current generators, with a profit in savings. Solar was found to be the better alternative in the UAE compared to wind.