Optimizing Renewable Electricity Supply: A Hybrid PV-Wind Energy System Approach for Sustainable Integration in Italy

The sustainability of energy systems relies on the integration of renewable local sources. This study aimed to optimize Italy's electricity supply by leveraging a hybrid PV-wind energy system, employing advanced optimization techniques. The primary goal was to pinpoint the minimum storage capacity necessary for Italy's power grid in a scenario completely reliant on PV and wind energy. To achieve this, the potential of both PV and wind energy was evaluated through a GIS-based analysis, while dynamic simulation was used to estimate power generation across regions. The Mixed-integer linear programming algorithm underwent a three-step process: computing the hourly residual load for diverse PV and wind capacity combinations, determining the hourly storage requirements and ultimately identifying the mix with the least storage capacity. Applying Mixed-integer linear programming to Italy's complete PV and wind energy potential revealed a necessity for 33 TWh of storage capacity. To decrease the required storage capacity, two new scenarios were proposed: the island mode scenario revealed an optimal mix of 16.9% PV and 83.1% wind, requiring a storage capacity of 7.04 TWh. In the second scenario, focused on balancing production and demand peak loads, the ideal combination comprised 16.6% PV and 83.4% wind, requiring a storage capacity of 12.18 TWh.