scholarly journals A Solar Photovoltaic Performance and Financial Modeling Solution for Grid-Connected Homes in Zambia

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Katundu Imasiku

Zambia is today 90% hydropower dependent, but this may change because Zambia and the World at large are today facing a changing climate that affects the ecosystem, rain patterns, and spurs drought which reduces the production of hydropower. The current power deficit experienced in Zambia points to a need to deploy a renewable energy generation-mix strategy. This study conducts a solar photovoltaic performance and financial analysis for grid-connected homes in Zambia to investigate the role of solar energy as an enabler for energy security in Zambia using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) System Advisor Model (SAM) simulation method. It further reviews the available solar irradiance, modeling a detailed grid-connected photovoltaic system using locally available products for a single owner in a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Zambia Electricity Company Limited (ZESCO). This model would alleviate the current power load shedding experienced by the residential sector, of up to 22 hours of no electricity out of 24 hours in a day. Alongside the technical performance model and an unfavorable business climate in Zambia, a financial model is also developed to help assess project feasibility and financial viability. A 1 kW solar PV system was modeled at an installation cost of US$1.27 per watt on a short-term basis of 5 years and found that the project is feasible with a 28.52% IRR achieved in 3 years and a 69% performance ratio and a debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) of 5.12 by the end of the project life, thereby indicating capability to turn around Zambia’s energy poverty to meet the UN SDG 7.

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2.25) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Bhuvaneswari C ◽  
Vijay B ◽  
Natarajan P

The primary and most universal measure of all kinds of work by nature is the energy. Coal, Natural gas, Oil and Nuclear energy are net energy yielders and primary sources of energy. The intent of this paper is to assess the performance of 15KW solar power plant installed in Priyadarshini Engineering College (PEC) campus, Vaniyambadi, Vellore District, Tamil Nadu. A 15 kW solar PV plant has been installed to supply electricity to the internet laboratory and library (lighting load). The results obtained from monitoring a 15 KW Solar Photovoltaic system installed on a library roofing of 10m height building. The system was monitored between (July-Sep2016) from 9.30AM to 4.30PM for three days in a week from Monday to Wednesday. The results can be used to provide manufacturers to develop their products and enhance the knowledge in the future in order to improve the design of the off-grid solar photovoltaic system, return of investment during these years. This work focuses on the performance of the solar photovoltaic plant (July-Sep2016) monthly average demand and annual performance parameters, Efficiency, fill factor,capacity Utilisation factor and the characteristics have been plotted in a graph. The graph is drawn between Generated power vs consumed power. The annual yield of the solar photovoltaic plant ranged from 6500-7000 Kwh and performance ratio of 78%. It has capacity Utilisation factor with 6.97%. 


Author(s):  
R. Mohan Kumar, Dr. C. Kathirvel

Due to increase in global warming, it is required to choose an alternative renewable energy source for the electricity generation. Among various renewable energy sources (RES), photo-voltaic energy is one of the most accessible source of energies. But the conversion rate of solar PV cell is about 25 % to 40 % of solar irradiation level. In Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system, to improve and maximize the operating efficiency level, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) techniques were required. Because of the change in the level of solar irradiance, and the nature of dynamic temperature, this MPP tracking will be highly important to make the solar PV system (SPS) to operate at higher efficiency level. This MPPT method is mainly categorized into three different types such as direct method, indirect method and intelligent method. This paper will gives and overview about various MPPT methods employed for solar PV system. Various controlling algorithms were discussed in this section for a better understanding.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.3) ◽  
pp. 553
Author(s):  
Sudhir. S. Chopade ◽  
Lalith Pankaj Raj. G. N ◽  
Prabakaran G

Indian power sector having the target of 175GW of power from renewable energy, out of that 40 GW from Rooftop solar Photovoltaic system by 2022. The installed capacity of solar photovoltaic until 2017 is about 14.77 GW only. Even though in depth study has been carried out on the performance analysis, there is no bench marking has been arrived for the Indian Roof Top Solar PV system. Hence this paper has made an attempt by calculating the various parameters like performance ratio, plant capacity utilization ratio for the two 20KWp grid connected rooftop power plant in Telangana state. In addition to the above, it needs to do in depth analysis of power quality issues on roof top grid tied system.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 186 ◽  
pp. 01004
Author(s):  
Pathomthat Chiradeja ◽  
Atthapol Ngaopitakkul

Renewable energy especially solar energy has become a significant part in electrical power generation with its advantage in the environmentally friendly and current trend of decrease in installation cost. The photovoltaic (PV) system on a rooftop is one of the power generating system based on renewable energy that can fit building to utilize space efficiently. This paper is analyzing the feasibility of installing a solar PV rooftop on the building using a case study building located in Bangkok, Thailand. The performance will be evaluated in term of both energy and economic perspective. The comparison with Thailand building energy code also been done to show that overall energy consumption with PV system complies with the law. The result has shown that with rooftop photovoltaic system installation, annual energy consumption in the building can be reduced significantly and it can achieve feasibility in term of economic perspective.


2020 ◽  
pp. 161-161
Author(s):  
Milana Medojevic ◽  
Milovan Medojevic ◽  
Villar Díaz

Having in mind that energy is being regarded as indispensable to the socio-economic progress of developing and developed nations, where the main objective implies replacement and reduction of a major portion of the fossil fuels utilization, implementation of renewable energy technologies where natural phenomena are transformed into beneficial types of energy are becoming more and more appreciated and needed. Among renewable energy resources we know today, solar energy is the most beneficial, relatively limitless, effective, and dependable. Having this in mind, the aim of this paper is primarily to help key decision-makers understand the process when considering integration of solar energy to meet their own manufacturing energy needs, or how it is called today, to become ?prosumers?. Given the aforementioned, this paper provides an overview of detailed simulation methodology for Photovoltaic (PV) system sizing and design for metal-forming manufacturing system energy needs. The simulation is based on NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) photovoltaic performance model which combines module and inverter sub-models with supplementary code to calculate a photovoltaic power system?s hourly AC output is given a weather file and data describing the physical characteristics of the module, inverter, and array. Furthermore, the characteristic losses are calculated and presented for a fixed array PV system and illustratively given in the form of a Sankey diagram. A variety of graphical data representations are available while the most important ones are given in the study. Lastly, future research topics were filtered and briefly summarized.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Izuan Fahmi Romli ◽  
Rajprasad Kumar Rajkumar ◽  
Wong Yee Wan ◽  
Chong Lee Wai ◽  
Roselina Arelhi ◽  
...  

Countries like Malaysia have more that 70% of its population living in rural areas. Majority of these rural areas lie in regions where most villages do not have grid connected electricity. Renewable energy using photovoltaic (PV) panels offers an alternative and cost efficient solution that exploits the yearlong abundance of sunlight available in countries like Malaysia. The main problem with PV systems is the high maintenance costs in replacing batteries every few years which makes PV systems unattractive for rural areas. A full scale PV system, developed in Semenyih Malaysia, aims to increase battery lifetime and reduce maintenance costs by incorporating supercapacitors. The system was developed in a life-sized cabin to mimic a rural home. A programmable load is used to test the system with the load profile of a typical rural household usage. Experimental and simulation results show that the supercapacitor bank is able to reduce the stress on the battery by absorbing peak current surges. Results also show that the system is able to maintain a high battery state of charge during the entire day.Article History: Received June 17th 2016; Received in revised form August 16th 2016; Accepted Sept 10th 2016; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Fahmi, M.I., Rajkumar, R.,  Wong, Y.W., Chong, L.W., Arelhi, R., and Isa, D. (2016) The Effectiveness of New Solar Photovoltaic System with Supercapacitor for Rural Areas. Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 5(3), 249-257.http://dx.doi.org/10.14710/ijred.5.3.249-257


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Tamba Dellosa

The Renewable Energy Act of 2008 in the Philippines provided an impetus for residential owners to explore solar PV installations at their own rooftops through the Net-Metering policy. The Net-Metering implementation through the law however presented some concerns with inexperienced electric DU on the potential effect of high residential solar PV system installations. It was not known how a high degree of solar integration to the grid can possibly affect the operations of the electric DU in terms of energy load management. The primary objective of this study was to help the local electric DU in the analysis of the potential effect of high residential solar PV system penetration to the supply and demand load profile in an electric distribution utility (DU) grid in the province of Agusan del Norte, Philippines. The energy consumption profiles in the year 2015 were obtained from the electric DU operating in the area. An average daily energy demand load profile was obtained from 0-hr to the 24th hour of the day based from the figures provided by the electric DU. The assessment part of the potential effect of high solar PV system integration assumed four potential total capacities from 10 Mega Watts (MW) to 40 MW generated by all subscribers in the area under study at a 10 MW interval. The effect of these capacities were measured and analyzed with respect to the average daily load profile of the DU. Results of this study showed that a combined installations beyond 20 MWp coming from all subscribers is not viable for the local electric DU based on their current energy demand or load profile. Based from the results obtained, the electric DU can make better decisions in the management of high capacity penetration of solar PV systems in the future, including investment in storage systems when extra capacities are generated.Article History: Received July 15th 2016; Received in revised form Sept 23rd 2016; Accepted Oct 1st 2016; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Dellosa, J. (2016) Potential Effect and Analysis of High Residential Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems Penetration to an Electric Distribution Utility (DU). Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 5(3), 179-185.http://dx.doi.org/10.14710/ijred.5.3.179-185


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (45) ◽  
pp. 11867-11872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyuan Li ◽  
Fabian Wagner ◽  
Wei Peng ◽  
Junnan Yang ◽  
Denise L. Mauzerall

Solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation is expanding rapidly in China, with total capacity projected to be 400 GW by 2030. However, severe aerosol pollution over China reduces solar radiation reaching the surface. We estimate the aerosol impact on solar PV electricity generation at the provincial and regional grid levels in China. Our approach is to examine the 12-year (2003–2014) average reduction in point-of-array irradiance (POAI) caused by aerosols in the atmosphere. We apply satellite-derived surface irradiance data from the NASA Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) with a PV performance model (PVLIB-Python) to calculate the impact of aerosols and clouds on POAI. Our findings reveal that aerosols over northern and eastern China, the most polluted regions, reduce annual average POAI by up to 1.5 kWh/m2per day relative to pollution-free conditions, a decrease of up to 35%. Annual average reductions of POAI over both northern and eastern China are about 20–25%. We also evaluate the seasonal variability of the impact and find that aerosols in this region are as important as clouds in winter. Furthermore, we find that aerosols decrease electricity output of tracking PV systems more than those with fixed arrays: over eastern China, POAI is reduced by 21% for fixed systems at optimal angle and 34% for two-axis tracking systems. We conclude that PV system performance in northern and eastern China will benefit from improvements in air quality and will facilitate that improvement by providing emission-free electricity.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 4600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinay Virupaksha ◽  
Mary Harty ◽  
Kevin McDonnell

Microgeneration of electricity using solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is a sustainable form of renewable energy, however uptake in Ireland remains very low. The aim of this study is to assess the potential of the community-based roof top solar PV microgeneration system to supply electricity to the grid, and to explore a crowd funding mechanism for community ownership of microgeneration projects. A modelled microgeneration project was developed: the electricity load profiles of 68 residential units were estimated; a community-based roof top solar PV system was designed; an electricity network model, based on a real network supplying a town and its surrounding areas, was created; and power flow analysis on the electrical network for system peak and minimum loads was carried out. The embodied energy, energy payback time, GHG payback time, carbon credits and financial cost relating to the proposed solar PV system were calculated. Different crowdfunding models were assessed. Results show the deployment of community solar PV system projects have significant potential to reduce the peak demand, smooth the load profile, assist in the voltage regulation and reduce electrical losses and deliver cost savings to distribution system operator and the consumer.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 586
Author(s):  
Fadhil Y. Al-Aboosi ◽  
Abdullah F. Al-Aboosi

Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have demonstrated growing competitiveness as a viable alternative to fossil fuel-based power plants to mitigate the negative impact of fossil energy sources on the environment. Notwithstanding, solar PV technology has not made yet a meaningful contribution in most countries globally. This study aims to encourage the adoption of solar PV systems on rooftop buildings in countries which have a good solar energy potential, and even if they are oil or gas producers, based on the obtained results of a proposed PV system. The performance of a rooftop grid-tied 3360 kWp PV system was analyzed by considering technical, economic, and environmental criteria, solar irradiance intensity, two modes of single-axis tracking, shadow effect, PV cell temperature impact on system efficiency, and Texas A&M University as a case study. The evaluated parameters of the proposed system include energy output, array yield, final yield, array and system losses, capacity factor, performance ratio, return on investment, payback period, Levelized cost of energy, and carbon emission. According to the overall performance results of the proposed PV system, it is found to be a technically, economically, and environmentally feasible solution for electricity generation and would play a significant role in the future energy mix of Texas.


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