Abstract
This paper presents a study aimed at evaluating and comparing the performance of six different tracking systems for photovoltaic (PV) with diesel-battery hybrid system in arid climate of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The study considered various technical and economic factors including system net present cost (NPC), levelized cost of energy (LCOE), and PV power generation using energy analysis and microgrid design software “HOMER”. It also presents an overview of the current electricity production and demand in the Kingdom. The weather data used in this study have been collected from the new solar atlas launched by King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE). The selected solar resource monitoring station for this study is located near to Riyadh city and has an annual average daily total irradiation of 6300 W/m2/day. The study shows that, for stand-alone PV system in the vicinity of Riyadh city, tracking system is economically better than fixed angle system. Among the considered tracking systems, VCA system is the most preferable as it has low NPC and LCOE values with a high return on investment (ROI) as well as low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to a high renewable energy penetration.
Highlights
Most of the power production worldwide is generated from conventional power plants using fossil fuels like natural gas, oil, and coal [1]
System Electricity Production The findings in this area show that the duel-axis tracker (DA) tracking system has the highest amount of PV electricity production with a total amount of 21,143 kWh/yr, which represents 52.1% of the total power generation of the DA hybrid PV system
The power generation from horizontal-axis tracker with monthly adjustment (HMA), horizontal-axis tracker with weekly adjustment (HWA), and horizontal-axis tracker with daily adjustment (HDA) has almost the same amount of power generation and the different time adjustments of the tilt angle has no significant impact on the output power
Summary
Most of the power production worldwide is generated from conventional power plants using fossil fuels like natural gas, oil, and coal [1]. In this context, sources of renewable energy can have a significant impact in the energy sector, and they are considered an applicable choice for combination with typical fossil fuels power plants. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a leading oil producer and famous for its arid climate focusing more on producing energy from renewable resources from solar
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