scholarly journals Optimal Sizing and Cost Minimization of Solar Photovoltaic Power System Considering Economical Perspectives and Net Metering Schemes

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 2713
Author(s):  
Abdul Rauf ◽  
Ali T. Al-Awami ◽  
Mahmoud Kassas ◽  
Muhammad Khalid

In this paper, economic feasibility of installing small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) system is studied at the residential and commercial buildings from an end-user perspective. Based on given scenarios, the best sizing methodology of solar PV system installation has been proposed focusing primarily on the minimum payback period under given (rooftop) area for solar PV installation by the customer. The strategy is demonstrated with the help of a case study using real-time monthly load profile data of residential as well as commercial load/customers and current market price for solar PVs and inverters. In addition, sensitivity analysis has also been carried out to examine the effectiveness of net metering scheme for fairly high participation from end users. Since Saudi Arabia’s Electricity and Co-generation Regulatory Authority (ECRA) has recently approved and published the net metering scheme for small-scale solar PV systems allowing end users to generate and export energy surplus to the utility grid, the proposed scheme has become vital and its practical significance is justified with figures and graphs obtained through computer simulations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramhari Poudyal ◽  
Pavel Loskot ◽  
Ranjan Parajuli

AbstractThis study investigates the techno-economic feasibility of installing a 3-kilowatt-peak (kWp) photovoltaic (PV) system in Kathmandu, Nepal. The study also analyses the importance of scaling up the share of solar energy to contribute to the country's overall energy generation mix. The technical viability of the designed PV system is assessed using PVsyst and Meteonorm simulation software. The performance indicators adopted in our study are the electric energy output, performance ratio, and the economic returns including the levelised cost and the net present value of energy production. The key parameters used in simulations are site-specific meteorological data, solar irradiance, PV capacity factor, and the price of electricity. The achieved PV system efficiency and the performance ratio are 17% and 84%, respectively. The demand–supply gap has been estimated assuming the load profile of a typical household in Kathmandu under the enhanced use of electric appliances. Our results show that the 3-kWp PV system can generate 100% of electricity consumed by a typical residential household in Kathmandu. The calculated levelised cost of energy for the PV system considered is 0.06 $/kWh, and the corresponding rate of investment is 87%. The payback period is estimated to be 8.6 years. The installation of the designed solar PV system could save 10.33 tons of CO2 emission over its lifetime. Overall, the PV systems with 3 kWp capacity appear to be a viable solution to secure a sufficient amount of electricity for most households in Kathmandu city.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Rauf ◽  
A. T. Awami ◽  
M. Kassas ◽  
M. Khalid


Author(s):  
Rakesh Dalal ◽  
Kamal Bansal ◽  
Sapan Thapar

Rooftop solar photovoltaic(PV) installation in India have increased in last decade because of the flat 40 percent subsidy extended for rooftop solar PV systems (3 kWp and below) by the Indian government under the solar rooftop scheme. From the residential building owner's perspective, solar PV is competitive when it can produce electricity at a cost less than or equal grid electricity price, a condition referred as “grid parity”. For assessing grid parity of 3 kWp and 2 kWp residential solar PV system, 15 states capital and 19 major cities were considered  for the RET screen simulation by using solar isolation, utility grid tariff, system cost and other economic parameters. 3 kWp and 2 kWp rooftop solar PV with and without subsidy scenarios were considered for simulation using RETscreen software. We estimate that without subsidy no state could achieve grid parity for 2kWp rooftop solar PV plant. However with 3 kWp rooftop solar PV plant only 5 states could achieve grid parity without subsidy and with government subsidy number of states increased to 7, yet wide spread parity for residential rooftop solar PV is still not achieved. We find that high installation costs, subsidized utility grid supply to low energy consumer and financing rates are major barriers to grid parity.



2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 3784-3795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye Zhao ◽  
Jean-Francois De Palma ◽  
Jerry Mosesian ◽  
Robert Lyons ◽  
Brad Lehman

Fault analysis in solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays is a fundamental task to protect PV modules from damage and to eliminate risks of safety hazards. This paper focuses on line-line faults in PV arrays that may be caused by short-circuit faults or double ground faults. The effect on fault current from a maximum-power-point tracking of a PV inverter is discussed and shown to, at times, prevent overcurrent protection devices (OCPDs) to operate properly. Furthermore, fault behavior of PV arrays is highly related to the fault location, fault impedance, irradiance level, and use of blocking diodes. Particularly, this paper examines the challenges to OCPD in a PV array brought by unique faults: One is a fault that occurs under low-irradiance conditions, and the other is a fault that occurs at night and evolves during “night-to-day” transition. In both circumstances, the faults might remain hidden in the PV system, no matter how irradiance changes afterward. These unique faults may subsequently lead to unexpected safety hazards, reduced system efficiency, and reduced reliability. A small-scale experimental PV system has been developed to further validate the conclusions.



Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1213 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sayed ◽  
M. El-Shimy ◽  
M. El-Metwally ◽  
M. Elshahed

Recently, solar power generation is significantly contributed to growing renewable sources of electricity all over the world. The reliability and availability improvement of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has become a critical area of interest for researchers. Reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) is an engineering tool used to address operational and safety issues of systems. It aims to identify the weakest areas of a system which will improve the overall system reliability. In this paper, RAM analysis of grid-connected solar-PV system is presented. Elaborate RAM analysis of these systems is presented starting from the sub-assembly level to the subsystem level, then the overall system. Further, an improved Reliability Block Diagram is presented to estimate the RAM performance of seven practical grid-connected solar-PV systems. The required input data are obtained from worldwide databases of failures, and repair of various subassemblies comprising various meteorological conditions. A novel approach is also presented in order to estimate the best probability density function for each sub-assembly. The monitoring of the critical subassemblies of a PV system will increase the possibility not only for improving the availability of the system, but also to optimize the maintenance costs. Additionally, it will inform the operators about the status of the various subsystems of the system.



2019 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 02004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Menéndez ◽  
Jorge Loredo

In 2017, electricity generation from renewable sources contributed more than one quarter (30.7%) to total EU-28 gross electricity consumption. Wind power is for the first time the most important source, followed closely by hydro power. The growth in electricity from photovoltaic energy has been dramatic, rising from just 3.8 TWh in 2007, reaching a level of 119.5 TWh in 2017. Over this period, the contribution of photovoltaic energy to all electricity generated in the EU-28 from renewable energy sources increased from 0.7% to 12.3%. During this period the investment cost of a photovoltaic power plant has decreased considerably. Fundamentally, the cost of solar panels and inverters has decreased by more than 50%. The solar photovoltaic energy potential depends on two parameters: global solar irradiation and photovoltaic panel efficiency. The average solar irradiation in Spain is 1,600 kWh m-2. This paper analyzes the economic feasibility of developing large scale solar photovoltaic power plants in Spain. Equivalent hours between 800-1,800 h year-1 and output power between 100-400 MW have been considered. The profitability analysis has been carried out considering different prices of the electricity produced in the daily market (50-60 € MWh-1). Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) were estimated for all scenarios analyzed. A solar PV power plant with 400 MW of power and 1,800 h year-1, reaches a NPV of 196 M€ and the IRR is 11.01%.



Electronics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Alshahrani ◽  
Siddig Omer ◽  
Yuehong Su ◽  
Elamin Mohamed ◽  
Saleh Alotaibi

Decarbonisation, energy security and expanding energy access are the main driving forces behind the worldwide increasing attention in renewable energy. This paper focuses on the solar photovoltaic (PV) technology because, currently, it has the most attention in the energy sector due to the sharp drop in the solar PV system cost, which was one of the main barriers of PV large-scale deployment. Firstly, this paper extensively reviews the technical challenges, potential technical solutions and the research carried out in integrating high shares of small-scale PV systems into the distribution network of the grid in order to give a clearer picture of the impact since most of the PV systems installations were at small scales and connected into the distribution network. The paper reviews the localised technical challenges, grid stability challenges and technical solutions on integrating large-scale PV systems into the transmission network of the grid. In addition, the current practices for managing the variability of large-scale PV systems by the grid operators are discussed. Finally, this paper concludes by summarising the critical technical aspects facing the integration of the PV system depending on their size into the grid, in which it provides a strong point of reference and a useful framework for the researchers planning to exploit this field further on.





2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Firdaus Muhammad Sukki ◽  
Roberto Ramirez Iniguez ◽  
Scott G. Mcmeekin ◽  
Brian G. Stewart ◽  
Barry Clive

Solar energy has become a matter of global attention in the past few years. This paper explores the use and benefit of solar concentrators in the solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. First, a short literature review of previous research on the usage of solar concentrators in improving solar PV system performance and reducing the cost of implementation is presented. This is followed by an overview of SolarBrane, an example of a Building Integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system which uses an optical concentrator in the solar PV design. An optimised design of the SolarBrane is also discussed afterwards. A financial benefit study is conducted to compare the average return of investment of using the optimised SolarBrane and traditional solar PV installed in Malaysia’s environment. SolarBrane has proven to be a good alternative to achieve costeffective solar PV system. The financial analysis simulated under the new Malaysian Feed–In Tariff scheme indicates that the optimised SolarBrane could potentially reduce the initial cost of implementation by 40% and generate higher return, close to 20%, when compared to traditional solar PV systems. Key words: Solar photovoltaic; solar concentrator; solarBrane; dielectric totally internally reflecting concentrator; financial analysis



2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minhyun LEE ◽  
Taehoon HONG ◽  
Choongwan KOO ◽  
Chan-Joong KIM

Despite the steady growth and price reductions of solar photovoltaic (PV) market in the United States (U.S.), the solar PV market still depends on financial support and incentives due to its high initial investment cost. Therefore, this study aimed to conduct a break-even analysis and impact analysis of residential solar PV systems by state in the U.S., focused on state solar incentives. Three indexes (i.e., net present value, profitability index (PI) and payback period) were used to evaluate the investment value of the residential solar PV systems considering state solar incentives. Furthermore, PI increase ratio was used to analyze the impact of state solar incentives on the economic feasibility of the residential solar PV systems in each state. As a result, it was found that 18 of the 51 target cities have reached the break-even point and seven of the 51 target cities showed great improvement of the economic feasibility of solar PV systems in the U.S. due to excellent state solar incentives. The results of this study can help policy makers to evaluate and compare the economic impacts of the residential solar PV systems by state in the U.S.



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