To help stakeholders plan, research, and develop Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES), the elaboration of numerous modelling techniques and software simulation tools has been reported. The thorough analysis of these undoubtedly complex systems is strongly correlated with the efficient utilisation of the potential of renewable energy and the meticulous development of pertinent designs. In this context, various optimisation constraints/targets have also been utilised. This specific work initially carries out a thorough review of the modelling techniques and simulation software developed in an attempt to define a commonly accepted categorisation methodology for the various existing HRES simulation methods. Moreover, the widely utilised optimisation targets are analysed in detail. Finally, it identifies the sensitivity of two commercial software tools (HOMER Pro and iHOGA) by examining nine case studies based on different wind and solar potential combinations. The results obtained by the two commercial tools are compared with the ESA Microgrid Simulator, a software developed by the Soft Energy Applications and Environmental Protection Laboratory of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of West Attica. The evaluation of the results, based on the diversification of the renewable energy potential used as input, has led to an in-depth assessment of the deviances detected in the software tools selected.

A great number of islands are dispersed across the Aegean Archipelagos, most of which have restricted water resources, affecting in this way the economic growth of local societies. To confront this issue, the solution addressed by the relevant stakeholders is the particularly costly and of questionable quality process of potable water transportation from the mainland using tanker ships. An alternative strategy consists of the deployment of seawater desalination configurations, leading however to a quite notable increase in the pertinent load demand.

The land use limitations, especially for onshore applications, have led modern Wind Turbines (WTs) to be aggregated in wind parks under the scope of minimizing the necessary area required. Within this framework, the trustworthy prediction of the wind speed deficiency downstream the WTs' hub (known also as the “wake effect”) and the meticulous wind park micrositing are of uppermost importance for the optimized WTs siting across the available land area. In this context, substantial effort has been made by the academic and research community, contributing to the deployment of several analytical, numerical and semi-empirical wake models, attempting to estimate the wind speed values at different locations downstream a WT. The accuracy of several semi-empirical and analytical wake models, serving also as the basis for pertinent commercial software development, is investigated in the present work, by comparing their outcome with experimental data from a past research work that concerns the wake flow. The dimensionless streamwise distance (known also with the term “downstream distance”) from the WT's hub is used as benchmark in order to categorize and evaluate the calculation results. A dedicated comparison between the wind speed cases investigated is conducted, striving to properly assess the wake models' prediction accuracy. The notable findings obtained for the wake models examined designate the requirement for subsequent research to enlighten the wake effect dynamic behavior.