Optimal Design of Solar Photovoltaic Power System with Battery Storage for Sustainable Campus Buildings

Abstract

The increasing energy demand and the development of renewable energy technology has been the catalyst for utilization of energy from renewable resources. Harvesting solar energy especially through photovoltaic technology is the most attractive and favoured in Malaysia. The aim of this study is to optimally design a solar PV system with battery storage for university building and evaluate the technical performance of the proposed system by using PVsyst simulation. Three buildings from Faculty of Electronic Engineering Technology, University Malaysia Perlis have been chosen as case study. The methodologies include data gathering for load profile and meteorological data such as solar irradiation and temperature, sizing of system’s components and lastly using PVsyst simulation to evaluate technical performance of the proposed system. The result shows the system could produce 168,989 kWh of energy to the load which is technically suitable for the site due to the high specific yield production and the performance ratio in addition to high solar fraction. In addition, the system could save RM 61,801 annually from electricity bill while from sustainability aspect, 117 tons of CO2 could be avoided by using renewable energy annually.