Renewable Energy Structure Optimization of King Island Off-grid System

Abstract

—With the continuous growth of global energy demand and increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions, the transition to renewable energy and sustainable energy systems has become a crucial issue. This paper studies the energy system of King Island, Australia. The system currently consists of wind power, diesel power and limited photovoltaic power, facing challenges such as power supply reliability, renewable energy volatility and dependence on diesel backup power. Homer Pro software is used to analyze the existing system and construct different scenarios to explore potential optimization paths. Specifically, two strategies are considered: expanding photovoltaic power generation capacity and connecting more wind turbines to the grid. The modeling framework uses indicators such as renewable energy share and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) to evaluate system performance under different configurations. The study results indicate that, in the case of this island, wind power expansion is superior to photovoltaic expansion in both increasing the proportion of renewable energy and reducing power generation costs. This research provides a structured method for system configuration analysis and supports further research on optimization strategies for islanded microgrids.