What is it about?
This study presents a year-long comprehensive performance analysis of four distinct solar photovoltaic (SPV) system configurations with central inverter, micro inverter, fixed axis structure and dual axis sun tracker (DAST) structure installed at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Technical and economic performance indices are used to analyse the impact of inverter technology and DAST structure using field data of one year. Specifically, technical parameters specified by IEC 61724 are used to compare simulated results with field data from June 2017 to May 2018. The difference between the simulated and measured values of all the configurations is mostly attributed to the variation in solar irradiance and module temperature data. For simulation study, daily and monthly average values are considered while daily instantaneous data are used for measured values. Comparison of measured values through energy yield, capacity factor and performance ratio (PR) indices has confirmed the superiority of dual axis micro inverter system configuration. Additionally, the impact of seasonal variation on PR values for all four system configurations is also analysed. Economic performance for 25 years of project life using payback period, net present value and levelised cost of energy indices concludes dual axis central inverter system configuration as the most economical.
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Why is it important?
Technical performance comparison of the SPV plant at IIT Kharagpur, using IEC Standard 61724 parameters for simulated and field data, is analyzed for a year from June-2017 to May-2018. Measured data from Inverter’s Graphical User Interface (GUI) web portal is used to compare all four configurations used in this work, followed by economic performance evaluation for full project life using the time value of money.
Perspectives
IEA PVPS Task 13 focuses on compiling statistical data from different locations and compare the long-term system performance for techno-economic analysis. Moreover, performance monitoring provides relevant information that helps in evaluating the system periodically for operation and maintenance. This has motivated the authors to evaluate the comprehensive techno-economic performance through simulation and measured values over a period of one year for four distinct rooftop-mounted and grid-connected SPV system configurations installed at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. In this work, Central Inverter (CI) and Micro Inverter (MI) connected to polycrystalline type SPV modules with Fixed Axis (FA) and Dual Axis Sun Tracking (DAST) systems each of 5 kWp are considered for techno-economic performance analysis.
Dinesh Varma Tekumalla
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Comprehensive PerformanceEvaluation of Various Solar PV SystemConfigurations, IET Renewable Power Generation, February 2019, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (the IET),
DOI: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2018.5729.
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