Optimal battery selection for solar storage system

Abstract

Nowadays, the extreme conjunction forces people who lived in the urban area to leave for a more leisurely living place in the remote area. However, this comes up with the problems that people who live in the rural area suffer from the inconvenience of electricity shortage. Building up a solar energy storage system and choosing a suitable battery seems to be necessary for them. As a result, our team decided to build up a highly applicable model to help users determine their most suitable batteries. We developed an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model and a Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) model to solve the best battery selection for a solar energy storing system problem. This problem involves many decisive factors and cannot be settled unless all of these factors, including attributes of the batteries, applicable situation, and users' preferences, are comprehensively considered. In our solution, various kinds of on-sale batteries are evaluated from a total of 9 criteria in six aspects: cost, battery's safety, continuous power rating, instantaneous power rating, round-Trip efficiency, and usable capacity. The cost of the battery is the most important factor affecting battery choice. Battery's safety refers to the safe level of the batteries, such as whether it will blow out during working. Continuous power rating means the output power of the battery, which allows it to operate continuously for a long time under the environmental conditions specified in the current relevant standards. Instantaneous power rating refers to the instantaneous power released by the battery. Round-trip efficiency is how much electricity a battery could generate in a single round-trip circuit. Usable capacity refers to the length of the battery's usable time. Both battery properties and user situation/preferences are fully considered in the model. Therefore, this model can recommend the best battery based on users' situations/preferences. The model is validated using eight batteries and ten fictional people in different careers. The best battery will be recommended with the highest rating, and all other seven batteries are ranked according to their computed priorities, providing more battery options for users.