Prospects of renewable energy in semi-arid region

Continuous usage of fossil fuels and other conventional resources to meet the growing demand has resulted in in-creased energy crisis and greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, it is essential to use renewable energy sources for more reliable, effective, sustainable and pollution free transmission and distribution networks. Therefore, to facilitate large-scale integration of renewable energy in particular wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, this paper presents the feasibility analysis for semi-arid climate and finds the most suitable places in North East region of Victoria for re-newable energy generation. For economic and environmental analysis, Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Re-newables (HOMER) has used to investigate the prospects of wind and solar energy considering the Net Present Cost (NPC), Cost of Energy (COE) and Renewable fraction (RF). Six locations are selected from North East region of Victo-ria and simulations are performed. From the feasibility analysis, it can be concluded that Mount Hotham is one of the most suitable locations for wind energy generation while Wangaratta is the most suitable location for solar energy generation. Mount Hotham is also the best suitable locations in North East region for hybrid power systems i.e., com-bination of both wind and solar energy generation.