A novel methodology for analyzing hybrid wind turbine-photovoltaic off-grid systems with battery storage is presented in this work. To support off-grid operation, small settlements were chosen as case studies for these autonomous hybrid systems. Meteorological, demographic, geographical, geospatial, land use and load data with the design and implementation of off-grid power plants were used. The study aims at further supporting and improving off-grid hybrid energy systems in terms of design, analysis and integration, while a life-cycle analysis for the proposed systems was performed to quantify the relative environmental impact, as well. The findings show that the implementation of autonomous energy production by renewable energy systems for off-grid small settlements, based on the presented methodology, is feasible. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.