scholarly journals A Techno-Economic Comparative Study of a Grid-Connected Residential Rooftop PV Panel: The Case Study of Nahr El-Bared, Lebanon

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 6956-6964
Author(s):  
H. Camur ◽  
Y. Kassem ◽  
E. Alessi

Lebanon suffers from daily electricity shortages. The country has paid much attention to renewable energy sources, particularly solar, to gradually replace conventional energy. Installing a photovoltaic (PV) system becomes increasingly attractive for residential consumers due to the rising electricity tariff rates while it reduces the dependency on domestic power generators. No known study has dealt with the investigation of potential grid-connected rooftop PV systems with various sun-tracking modes and PV technologies in Nahr El-Bared, Lebanon. Consequently, the main objective of the current paper is to investigate the feasibility of a 5kW grid-connected PV system of various technologies (mono-crystalline silicon and poly-crystalline silicon) and sun-tracking modes including fixed tilt and 2-axis systems for rooftop households in Lebanon. The Nahr El-Bared camp was the case study was of the paper. RETScreen Expert software was used to evaluate the techno-economic performance of the proposed systems. The results show that the annual electrical energy from a fixed 5kW PV panel tilted at an optimal angle ranged from 8564.47kWh to 8776.81kWh, while the annual electrical energy from the PV tracking system was within the range of 11511.67-12100.92kWh. This amount of energy output would contribute significantly to reduce the energy shortage in the country. A typical household was selected to establish a load profile and load supply during both grid availability and outage periods. The highest energy consumption that can be covered by the PV systems was recorded during the spring and summer seasons. Also, the average energy production cost ranged from 0.0239 to 0.0243$/kWh for all the proposed systems. It was concluded that a 5kW grid-connected rooftop PV system could be economically justifiable. Finally, this study tried to increase the awareness about utilizing PV sun-tracking systems and the feasibility of small-scale grid-connected rooftop PV systems in the selected regions. The results of this research can help investors in the energy and building sectors.

2021 ◽  
Vol 926 (1) ◽  
pp. 012092
Author(s):  
Y Kassem ◽  
H Çamur ◽  
A A Othman ◽  
L Alshrouf ◽  
M Yasin ◽  
...  

Abstract The main objective of the paper is to investigate the feasibility of small-scale grid-connected PV systems with various PV technologies (mono-crystalline silicon and poly-crystalline silicon) and sun-tracking modes including fixed tilt and 2-axis systems for rooftop households in Amman, Jordan. A case study is applied to Al Jama’a and Abu Nusir, Amman, Jordan. Typical households were chosen for this region to establish a load profile according to monthly electrical bills. The results show that the annual electrical energy from fixed small-scale PV panels tilted at an optimal angle was ranged from 3499.04kWh to 8811.62kWh, while the annual electrical energy from the PV tracking system was within the range of 4788.05-12128.30kWh. This amount of energy output would contribute significantly to reduce fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in the country. Moreover, it is found that the highest energy consumption can be covered by PV systems is recorded in winter. Also, the average energy production cost is ranged from 0.0444-0.0530$/kWh for all proposed systems based on the financial assumptions used in this study. It is concluded that the small-scale grid-connected rooftop PV systems are found to be economically justifiable.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Abdul-Ganiyu ◽  
David A Quansah ◽  
Emmanuel W Ramde ◽  
Razak Seidu ◽  
Muyiwa S. Adaramola

The main objective of this paper is to experimentally assess the real-life outdoor performance of a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) module against a conventional photovoltaic (PV) system in a hot humid tropical climate in Ghana. An experimental setup comprising a water-based mono-crystalline silicon PVT and an ordinary mono-crystalline silicon PV was installed on a rooftop at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and results evaluated for the entire year of 2019. It was observed that the annual total output energy of PV module was 194.79 kWh/m2 whereas that of the PVT for electrical and thermal outputs were 149.92 kWh/m2 and 1087.79 kWh/m2, respectively. The yearly average daily electrical energy yield for the PV and PVT were 3.21 kWh/kWp/day and 2.72 kWh/kWp/day, respectively. The annual performance ratios for the PV and PVT (based on electrical energy output only) were 79.2% and 51.6%, respectively, whilst their capacity factors were, respectively, 13.4% and 11.3%. Whereas the highest monthly mean efficiency recorded for the PV was 12.7%, the highest combined measured monthly mean electrical/thermal efficiency of the PVT was 56.1%. It is also concluded that the PVT is a worthy prospective alternative energy source in off-grid situations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 9318
Author(s):  
Mladen Bošnjaković ◽  
Ante Čikić ◽  
Boris Zlatunić

A large drop in prices of photovoltaic (PV) equipment, an increase in electricity prices, and increasing environmental pressure to use renewable energy sources that pollute the environment significantly less than the use of fossil fuels have led to a large increase in installed roof PV capacity in many parts of the world. In this context, this paper aims to analyze the cost-effectiveness of installing PV systems in the rural continental part of Croatia on existing family houses. A typical example is a house in Dragotin, Croatia with an annual consumption of 4211.70 kWh of electricity on which PV panels are placed facing south under the optimal slope. The calculation of the optimal size of a PV power plant with a capacity of 3.6 kW, without battery energy storage, was performed by the Homer program. The daily load curve was obtained by measuring the electricity consumption at the facility every hour during a characteristic day in the month of June. As most of the activities are related to electricity consumption, repeating during most days of the year, and taking into account seasonal activities, daily load curves were made for a characteristic day in each month of the year. Taking into account the insolation for the specified location, using the Internet platform Solargis Prospect, hourly data on the electricity production of selected PV modules for a characteristic day in each month were obtained. Based on the previous data, the electricity injected into the grid and taken from the grid was calculated. Taking into account the current tariffs for the sale and purchase of electricity, investment prices, and maintenance of equipment, the analysis shows that such a PV system can pay off in 10.5 years without government incentives.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4505
Author(s):  
Chila Kaewpraek ◽  
Liaqat Ali ◽  
Md. Arfeen Rahman ◽  
Mohammad Shakeri ◽  
M. S. Chowdhury ◽  
...  

The rapid rise in the number of fossil fuel uses over the last few decades has increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The purpose of implementing renewable energy solutions, such as solar, hydro, wind, biomass, and other renewable energy sources, is to mitigate global climate change worldwide. Solar energy has received more attention over the last few decades as an alternative source of energy, and it can play an essential role in the future of the energy industry. This is especially true of energy solutions that reduce land use, such as off-grid and on-grid solar rooftop technologies. This study aims to evaluate the energy conversion efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems in tropical environments. It also explores the effect of growing plants beneath PV panels. Two identical grid-connected PV systems—each containing five solar panels—were installed. The overall power production of each PV system was about 1.4 kWp. All the collected data were processed and analysed in the same way and by the same method. The PV systems were installed in two different environments—one with the possibility of growing the plants beneath the PV panels (PViGR module) and one with no possibility of growing the plants beneath the PV panels (PViSR module). The experiments were conducted in the Bo Yang District of Songkhla, Thailand over a 12-month period. Our findings indicate that green roof photovoltaic (GRPV) systems can produce around 2100 kWh of electricity in comparison to the 2000 kWh produced by other solar energy systems. Thereby, growing plants beneath PV panels increases electricity production efficiency by around 2%. This difference comes from the growing of plants underneath GRPV systems. Plants do not only help to trap humidity underneath GRPV systems but also help to cool the PV panels by absorbing the temperature beneath GRPV systems. Thus, in the production of electrical energy; the system was clearly showing significant differences in the mentioned results of both PV solar systems, which are evident for great energy efficiency performances in the future.


Author(s):  
Ahmed Bouraiou ◽  
Ammar Neçaibia ◽  
Rachid Dabou ◽  
Abderrezzaq Ziane ◽  
Nordine Sahouane ◽  
...  

The electrical energy generation via the Photovoltaic system is widely utilized in the world especially in the countries where it is characterized by considerable potential of solar energy. PV systems are affected by several factors that can reduce its efficiency such as PV generator aging, failures. Photovoltaic systems monitoring is a important task for guaranteeing the reliability and stability of PV system operation. This paper addresses the monitoring of PV systems in renewable energy research unit in the Saharan region (URERMS) Adrar, through to give an insigth about the methods of measuring, acquisition, data storage of monitored parameters. In addition, the existing problems for insuring the suitable solution.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Pakkiraiah ◽  
G. Durga Sukumar

Nowadays in order to meet the increase in power demands and to reduce the global warming, renewable energy sources based system is used. Out of the various renewable energy sources, solar energy is the main alternative. But, compared to other sources, the solar panel system converts only 30–40% of solar irradiation into electrical energy. In order to get maximum output from a PV panel system, an extensive research has been underway for long time so as to access the performance of PV system and to investigate the various issues related to the use of solar PV system effectively. This paper therefore presents different types of PV panel systems, maximum power point tracking control algorithms, power electronic converters usage with control aspects, various controllers, filters to reduce harmonic content, and usage of battery system for PV system. Attempts have been made to highlight the current and future issues involved in the development of PV system with improved performance. A list of 185 research publications on this is appended for reference.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3863
Author(s):  
Tiago Alves ◽  
João Paulo N. Torres ◽  
Ricardo A. Marques Lameirinhas ◽  
Carlos A. F. Fernandes

The effect of partial shading in photovoltaic (PV) panels is one of the biggest problems regarding power losses in PV systems. When the irradiance pattern throughout a PV panel is inequal, some cells with the possibility of higher power production will produce less and start to deteriorate. The objective of this research work is to present, test and discuss different techniques to help mitigate partial shading in PV panels, observing and commenting the advantages and disadvantages for different PV technologies under different operating conditions. The motivation is to contribute with research, simulation, and experimental work. Several state-of-the-artsolutions to the problem will be presented: different topologies in the interconnection of the panels; different PV system architectures, and also introducing new solution hypotheses, such as different cell interconnections topologies. Alongside, benefits and limitations will be discussed. To obtain actual results, the simulation work was conducted by creating MATLAB/Simulink models for each different technique tested, all centered around the 1M5P PV cell model. The several techniques tested will also take into account different patterns and sizes of partial shading, different PV panel technologies, different values of source irradiation, and different PV array sizes. The results will be discussed and validated by experimental tests.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6169
Author(s):  
Ashish Kumar Singhal ◽  
Narendra Singh Beniwal ◽  
Khalid Almutairi ◽  
Joshuva Arockia Dhanraj ◽  
Ali Mostafaeipour ◽  
...  

The world is moving towards the generation of electricity with renewable energy sources (RES) due to the deterioration of the green environment and trying to replace non-renewable energy resources. The real-time results are achieved with the help of an arm controller, having good controller efficiency with the Waijung toolbox, compatible with MATLAB using STM32ST-link utility. In this paper, the authors are focused on areas such as easy to implement controller efficiency, and real-time solutions for modified direct-control perturbation & observation (DC-P&O) technique based on 32- bit ARM Cortex microcontroller (STM32F407VGT6) with embedded programming using Waijung blocksets, which offers very expected outcomes of the problem to make the stand-alone system efficient with fast-tracking. The observation setup is tested with a 40-watt photovoltaic (PV) panel with resistive load for achieving its stability. The designed algorithm enhances the efficiency of the controller by 84.48% for the real-time parameters of the PV panel at maximum power point (MPP) for a 57% duty ratio.


Author(s):  
Abdelkader Mezouari ◽  
Rachid Elgouri ◽  
Mohammed Alareqi ◽  
Khalid Mateur ◽  
Hamad Dahou ◽  
...  

The photovoltaic systems are often employed into micro-grids; Micro-grids are small power grids designed to provide a reliable and better power supply to a small number of consumers using renewable energy sources. This paper deals with DC micro-grids and present a new system of monitoring and sharing electricity between homes equipped with photovoltaic panels (PV) in the goal to reduce the electrical energy waste. The system is based on dynamic sharing of photovoltaic blocks through homes in stand-alone areas, using an arduino board for controlling the switching matrix. The LABVIEW program is used to further process and display collected data from the system in the PC screen. A small-scale prototype has been developed in a laboratory to proof the concept. This prototype demonstrates the feasibility and functionality of the system.


Electronics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Baimel ◽  
Saad Tapuchi ◽  
Yoash Levron ◽  
Juri Belikov

This paper proposes two new Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) methods which improve the conventional Fractional Open Circuit Voltage (FOCV) method. The main novelty is a switched semi-pilot cell that is used for measuring the open-circuit voltage. In the first method this voltage is measured on the semi-pilot cell located at the edge of PV panel. During the measurement the semi-pilot cell is disconnected from the panel by a pair of transistors, and bypassed by a diode. In the second Semi-Pilot Panel method the open circuit voltage is measured on a pilot panel in a large PV system. The proposed methods are validated using simulations and experiments. It is shown that both methods can accurately estimate the maximum power point voltage, and hence improve the system efficiency.


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