Renewable resources gained more attention in the last two decades due to persisting energy demand coupled with decrease in fossil fuel resources and its environmental effect to the earth. In Iraq, the electric power generated is not enough to meet the power demand of domestic and industrial sectors. In this article, a hybrid system was proposed as a renewable resource of power generation for grid connected applications in three cities in Iraq. The proposed system was simulated using MATLAB solver, in which the input parameters for the solver were the meteorological data for the selected locations and the sizes of PV and wind turbines. Results showed that it is possible for Iraq to use the solar and wind energy to generate enough power for some villages in the desert or rural area. It is also possible to use such a system as a black start source of power during total shutdown time. Results also indicated that the preferred location for this system is in Basrah for both solar and wind energy. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.