Techno-Economic Study of PV System for Household Electricity Generation in Almadinah AlMunawwarah

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the technological feasibility and economic viability of the electrification of small house lies in a farm 50km far away from Almadinah AlMunawwarah. Nowadays, solar powered air conditioning has witnessed an increased progress because air conditioning system is almost a must in every building in Saudi Arabia where the outside temperature in summer higher than 45◦ C. therefore, this paper consists of two parts: one to investigate the design and performance of solar powered air conditioning system as a case study integrated with photovoltaic (PV) system which consists of PV panels, solar charger, inverter and batteries. The second part is to study the feasibility to provide electricity for a farm lies in the remote area far 50 km from Almadinah. The first step in this project is the load calculations for the selected space including lighting, cooling and other necessary appliances. Based on the cooling load calculations for the specified room used as a case study, it was found the estimated cooling load about 1-ton refrigeration (3.52 kW), the photovoltaic (PV) system has been constructed and built with the necessary connections. Data logging system has been used to measure the temperatures at the main components in the cycle. The input powers for the system as well as the coefficient of performance (COP) for the system under Almadinah climatic conditions were measured along the day. The COP varies between 2.16 to 4.22 for the system and are in a good agreement with conventional system performance. Economically, the PV system found to be the optimal solution to provide the required load at an initial cost of 187,267 SR. The present work shows that the PV system has the potential to provide electricity for remote homes far from the grids with additional environmental benefit that otherwise not gained when using conventional fossil fuel