Hybrid off-grid energy systems enable a cost efficient and reliable energy supply to rural areas around the world. The main potential for a low cost operation and uninterrupted power supply lies in the optimal sizing and operation of such microgrids. In particular, sudden variations in load demand or in the power supply from renewables underline the need for an optimally sized system. This paper presents an efficient multi-objective model based optimization approach for the optimal sizing of all components and the determination of the best power electronic layout. The presented method is divided into three optimization problems to minimize economic and environmental objectives. This design optimization includes detailed components models and an optimized energy dispatch strategy which enables the optimal design of the energy system with respect to an adequate control for the specific configuration. To significantly reduce the computation time without loss of accuracy, the presented method contains the determination of a representative load profile using a k-means clustering method. The k-means algorithm itself is embedded in an optimization problem for the calculation of the optimal number of clusters. The benefits in term of reduced computation time, inclusion of optimal energy dispatch and optimization of power electronic architecture, of the presented optimization method are illustrated using a case study. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.