Performance assessment of standalone PV systems for rural communities

ABSTRACT

The application of the standalone PV power system is currently considered as an alternative source of electricity for remote areas. The energy authority and An-Najah National University in the Palestinian territories worked on electrification of many small communities and villages by using centralised and decentralised solar PV systems. In this paper, long-term performance assessment of two 4.8 kW standalone PV pilot systems at two different villages is depicted. The unused energy of the storage battery, which is equal to 50% of the PV array output, is found to be the key factor of having low-performance ratio in the range of 0.25–0.65. The simulation results using PVSYST software illustrate that adopting the two-axis solar tracking mode for standalone PV systems has a significant impact on its output. It can reduce the size of the PV array by up to 50%. It is proposed to connect groups of villages with a local micro grid which can be fed by the surplus energy from the different standalone systems. Cost analysis of the current and the proposed design shows that the payback period of the micro-grid with two-axis tracking PV array is less than half of the period of the current standalone system.

Abbreviations: E_output: Monthly array energy output (kWh); E_array: Capacity of the PV array (kW); E_load: Monthly energy demand of the site (kWh); E_unused: Unused energy when the battery is full (kWh); E_surplus: Percenatge of surplus energy (%); E_pv: PV panel capacity (kW/m²); η_pv: PV panel efficiency (%); I_rr: Global irradiation on horizontal surface (kWh/m²).

KEYWORDS:

• Performance assessment
• Standalone PV system
• PV system simulation
• Microgrid

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Saad Odeh

Dr Saad Odeh is the unit coordinator of Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer at Western Sydney University – Sydney City Campus and the senior programme convenor for engineering and IT at Sydney Institute of Business and Technology. He has PhD in Mechanical engineering from University of New South Wales. Saad worked as a lecturer and associate professor at different national and international universities and published more than 55 papers and articles in the area of Renewable Energy, Energy Sustainability and Engineering Education. He is member of Institution of Engineers Australia (IEA), and Advisor in the technical committee of the Australian Building Sustainability Association (ABSA).

Imad Ibrik

Dr. Imad Ibrik has a doctorate degree of electrical engineering from Vinnitsa State Technical University in Ukraine, with a specialisation in power system engineering and planning. Dr. Imad Ibrik is currently the director of the Energy Research Centre, an associate professor at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine, as well as a consultant. Dr. Imad Ibrik is an expert in the area of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy . He managed and conducted several projects in these fields, and conducted training programs for the energy efficiency and renewable energy applications.