scholarly journals Improving the Efficiency of Stand-Alone Solar PV Power Plants

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-412
Author(s):  
Artur Akhmetshin ◽  
Midhat Tuhvatullin ◽  
Dinar Atnagulov ◽  
Andrey Linenko ◽  
Bulat Khalilov

As a source of alternative energy, solar energy has apparent advantages, including a renewable, inexhaustible, and environmentally friendly resource. However, it has not become widely spread in the Russian Federation. Among the disadvantages of using solar energy are high equipment cost, low efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells, the generated electrical energy instability. The spatio-temporal variability of solar access causes electrical energy instability. It is possible to increase solar photovoltaic plant efficiency by using a tracking system to change the plant sun's spatial orientation. The paper offers mathematical and simulation models of a solar photovoltaic plant with a solar tracking system that allows the plant to be automatically oriented to the sun by matching the production mode and the solar access level. The use of the azimuth plant control system on the sun will increase the power production of the solar PV plant by an average of 28%. The same value will increase by 40% when using the full plant control system.

2014 ◽  
Vol 704 ◽  
pp. 350-354
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ikram Mohd Rashid ◽  
Nik Fadhil bin Nik Mohammed ◽  
Suliana binti Ab Ghani ◽  
Noor Asiah Mohamad

The energy extracted from photovoltaic (PV) or solar thermal depends on solar insolation. For the extraction of maximum energy from the sun, the plane of the solar collector should always be normal to the incident radiation. Sun trackers move the solar collector to follow the sun trajectories and keep the orientation of the solar collector at an optimal tilt angle. Energy efficiency of solar PV or solar thermal can be substantially improved using solar tracking system. In this paper, an automatic solar tracking system has been designed and developed using DC motor on a mechanical structure with gear arrangement. The movements of two-axis solar trackers for the elevation and azimuth angles are programmed according to the mathematical calculation by using the Borland C++ Builder. Performance of the proposed system over the important parameter like solar radiation received on the collector, maximum hourly electrical power has been evaluated and compared with those for fixed tilt angle solar collector.


The solar energy being clean, green & commercially modest, have become one of the most prevalent choice amongst the renewable sources of electrical energy. Utilization of energy generated from Solar photovoltaic (SPV) system rest on the maximum extraction of the power generated. Ideal maximum power point (MPP) tracking (MPPT) is used to transfer 100% generated power from source and transfer it to load. In literature of recent years, a good number of publications found on SPV systems and MPPT. In this paper most popular MPPT techniquesPerturb & Observe (PO) and Incremental Conductance (IC) methods are simulated and implemented. The comparison is also presented on the ground of parameters like tracking time, tracking efficiency etc.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raúl Gregor ◽  
Yoshihiko Takase ◽  
Jorge Rodas ◽  
Leonardo Carreras ◽  
Derlis Gregor ◽  
...  

The smart grid and distributed generation based on renewable energy applications often involve the use of information and communication technology (ICT) coupled with advanced control and monitoring algorithms to improve the efficiency and reliability of the electrical grid and renewable generation systems. Photovoltaic (PV) systems have been recently applied with success in the fields of distributed generation due to their lower environmental impact where the electrical energy generation is related to the amount of solar irradiation and thus the angle of incident ray of the sun on the surface of the modules. This paper introduces an integration of ICTs in order to achieve the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) using a biaxial solar tracking system for PV power applications. To generate the references for the digital control of azimuth and elevation angles a Global Positioning System (GPS) by satellites is used which enables acquiring the geographic coordinates of the sun in real-time. As a total integration of the system a communication platform based on the 802.15.4 protocol for the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is adopted for supervising and monitoring the PV plant. A 2.4 kW prototype system is implemented to validate the proposed control scheme performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 335 ◽  
pp. 03002
Author(s):  
Chong Jia Joon ◽  
Kelvin Chew Wai Jin

Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels have been widely used to convert the renewable energy from the sun to electrical energy to power electrical loads but suffers from relatively low efficiency between 15% to 22%. Typically, the panels have an average lifespan of 25 to 30 years but could degrade quicker due to the panel overheating. Beyond the optimum working temperature of 25°C, a drop of efficiency by 0.4 to 0.5% for every 1°C had been reported. For solar PV applications in urban regions, passive cooling is beneficial due to limited amount of space and lower energy consumption compared to active cooling. A solar PV system with augmented cooling was conducted at a balcony of a condominium from 10am until 2pm. The solar PV system consisted of an Arduino controller, solar panel module, temperature sensor and LCD monitor. Reusable cold and hot gel packs were attached to the bottom of the solar PV. Both setups of solar PV panel with and without the cooling system were placed at the balcony simultaneously for measurement of temperature, output voltage and current. From this research, the outcome of implementing a cooling system to the solar PV increases the efficiency of the energy conversion.


This paper proposes a design of solar tracking system for capturing maximum amount of solar energy by rotating the solar panel. From sun rise to sun set, the sun changes its direction several times due to which the static solar panel fails to capture maximum solar energy throughout the day. Therefore, it is required to develop a system that is capable of generating electrical energy by making use of maximum amount of solar energy. This paper discloses about the rotatable solar tracking system capable of rotating along the sun direction for tracking maximum amount of solar energy. This advanced technology not only utilize the solar energy more effectively but also improves the efficiency of whole system.


Author(s):  
Abhishek Kumar Tripathi ◽  
Mangalpady Aruna ◽  
Ch. S.N. Murthy

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion has gained much attention nowadays. The output power of PV panel depends on the condition under which the panel is working, such as solar radiation, ambient temperature, dust, wind speed and humidity. The amount of falling sunlight on the panel surface (i.e., solar radiation) directly affects its output power. In order to maximize the amount of falling sunlight on the panel surface, a solar tracking PV panel system is introduced. This paper describes the design, development and fabrication of the solar PV panel tracking system. The designed solar tracking system is able to track the position of the sun throughout the day, which allows more sunlight falling on the panel surface. The experimental results show that there was an enhancement of up to a 64.72% in the output power of the PV panel with reference to the fixed orientation PV panel. Further, this study also demonstrates that the full load torque of the tracking system would be much higher than the obtained torque, which is required to track the position of the sun. This propounds, that the proposed tracking system can also be used for a higher capacity PV power generation system.


2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (17) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azwaan Zakariah ◽  
Mahdi Faramarzi ◽  
Jasrul Jamani Jamian ◽  
Mohd Amri Md Yunus

Nowadays, renewable energy such as solar power has become important for electricity generation, and solar power systems have been installed in homes. Furthermore, solar tracking systems are being continuously improved by researchers around the world, who focus on achieving the best design and thus maximizing the efficiency of the solar power system. In this project, a fuzzy logic controller has been integrated and implemented in a medium-scale solar tracking system to achieve the best real-time orientation of a solar PV panel toward the sun. This project utilized dual-axis solar tracking with a fuzzy logic intelligent method. The hardware system consists of an Arduino UNO microcontroller as the main controller and Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) sensors for sensing the maximum incident intensity of solar irradiance. Initially, two power window motors (one for the horizontal axis and the other for the vertical axis) coordinate and alternately rotate to scan the position of the sun. Since the sun changes its position all the time, the LDR sensors detect its position at five-minute intervals through the level of incident solar irradiance intensity measured by them. The fuzzy logic controller helps the microcontroller to give the best inference concerning the direction to which the solar PV panel should rotate and the position in which it should stay. In conclusion, the solar tracking system delivers high efficiency of output power with a low power intake while it operates.


2015 ◽  
Vol 813-814 ◽  
pp. 992-996
Author(s):  
P. Chandra Dheeraj ◽  
B. Avinash ◽  
G. Sai Pavan Kumar ◽  
P.S. Sivasakthivel ◽  
M. Venkatesan

With the fast depletion of the conventional energy resources and the amount of pollution it is creating, the entire world is looking for an alternative non-conventional and a renewable energy to lessen the dependency on the conventional energy resources. In this scenario, utilizing solar energy which is abundant in nature is gaining high attention. One way of utilizing solar energy is by using solar photovoltaic cells which convert light energy into electrical energy, but they are too costly and less efficient. Many techniques are being developed to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency in harnessing solar energy. Sun tracking technique is one of the methods to increase the efficiency of solar cells. The present work is focused on providing a microcontroller based automatic two-axis sun tracker using Photodiodes as sensors to track sun. The system is assisted with a manual control through LabVIEW (Graphical User friendly Interface) to aid during bad weather conditions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 110-116 ◽  
pp. 2034-2037
Author(s):  
Subhash Gupta ◽  
S. Kalika ◽  
R. Cabigting Luisito

Solar energy systems have emerged as a viable source of renewable energy over the past two or three decades, and are now widely used for a variety of industrial and domestic applications. This paper shows the potential system benefits of simple tracking solar system using a stepper motor and light sensor. This method is increasing power collection efficiency by developing a device that tracks the sun to keep the panel at a right angle to its rays. Such systems are based on a solar collector, designed to collect the sun’s energy and to convert it into either electrical power or thermal energy The output power produced by high-concentration solar thermal and photovoltaic systems is directly related to the amount of solar energy acquired by the system, and it is therefore necessary to track the sun’s position with a high degree of accuracy. The power developed in such applications depends fundamentally upon the amount of solar energy captured by the collector, and thus the problem of developing tracking schemes capable of following the trajectory of the sun throughout the course of the day on a year-round basis has received significant coverage in the literature. A solar tracking system is designed, implemented and experimentally tested. The design details and the experimental results are incorporated in this paper.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ming-Hui Tan ◽  
Tze-Koon Wang ◽  
Chee-Woon Wong ◽  
Kok-Keong Chong ◽  
Boon-Han Lim ◽  
...  

A dual-axis sun tracking system is an essential strategy to maximize the optical efficiency of harnessing solar energy. However, there is no significant study yet to optimize the net performance of the photovoltaic (PV) or concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) system equipped with a dual-axis sun tracking system. Parasitic energy loss associated with the power consumption of the sun tracking system is one of the major concerns for the solar industrial players. To address this issue, a comprehensive methodology has been developed to evaluate the yearly cumulative range of motion for dual-axis sun tracking systems in the cases of with and without fixed parking positions across the latitudes ranging from 45°N to 45°S. The parasitic energy consumptions have been investigated for three selected types of dual-axis sun tracking systems, i.e., the azimuth-elevation sun tracking system (AE-STS), polar dual-axis sun tracking system (PD-STS), and horizontal dual-axis sun tracking system (HD-STS). The simulated results indicate that the dual-axis sun tracking system with the nonfixed parking (or stow) position has lower yearly cumulative parasitic energy consumption with respect to the sun tracking system with a fixed parking position. Lastly, our simulation result has shown that the parasitic energy consumption of the sun tracking is relatively smaller to that of the electrical energy generated by the concentrator photovoltaic system with the ratio between 0.15% and 0.29% for AE-STS, between 0.15% and 0.30% for PD-STS, and between 0.17% and 0.35% for HD-STS.


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