Abstract
<jats:p>The deployment of renewable energy systems in isolated regions presents unique challenges related to resource intermittency, storage requirements, and economic feasibility. This study presents a comprehensive framework for designing and validating a hybrid renewable energy system tailored for off-grid communities, combining photovoltaic arrays, wind turbines, battery storage, and hydrogen-based long-term energy storage with diesel backup. Unlike conventional optimization-only approaches, the proposed methodology integrates analytical sizing with dynamic simulation and multi-scenario validation to ensure system resilience under varying climatic conditions. The framework is applied to a representative case study in Salah Bey, Algeria, where a 12,090 MWh/year load demand is to be met. Through MATLAB-based hourly simulations and independent validation using HOMER Pro, the system demonstrates reliable performance under normal, degraded, and stochastic climatic scenarios, achieving 100% renewable penetration under standard conditions and maintaining supply continuity even under extreme resource reduction (99.7% load coverage). Techno-economic analysis reveals a levelized cost of energy of 41.29 DA/kWh, an internal rate of return of 15.35%, and annual CO₂ emission reductions exceeding 8,000 tonnes compared to diesel-only alternatives. The close agreement between MATLAB and HOMER Pro results (deviations below 7% for key parameters) validates the proposed sizing methodology. This work provides a practical, replicable design and validation framework applicable to diverse off-grid electrification contexts, demonstrating that hybrid renewable systems can achieve both technical reliability and economic competitiveness while substantially reducing environmental impact.</jats:p>