Performance Assessment of Solar PV Power Plant with Pvsyst Simulation Tool

Abstract

In India the energy generation trend has shifted rapidly towards renewable energy sources in recent years. Since the tropical climate condition of the country favors the capability of renewable energy sources and among them direct use of solar radiation and wind can be harnessed effectively to increase the energy capacity. Solar is the most secure, copious and non-polluting source of energy. Simple and direct conversion mechanism of photovoltaic system captures has emerged it as a global player in non-polluting sources of electricity generation. The PV power plant located at Mechanical Engineering Department of SKIT, Jaipur is studied to evaluate the performance under the composite climate condition. The performance indices include the energy and economic parameters such as reference, array, final yield net present value, cost of energy and money payback period. The analysis involves a simulation tool PVsyst. The energy parameters found for the installed capacity also involve performance ratio, calculated throughout the year. The result shows the final yield for the plant as 4.5 kWh/kWp/day. The economic evaluation shows the money payback period as 4.3years. Key Words: Photovoltaic, economic evaluation, PVsyst, reference yield, temperature loss