Annual Average Performance Ratio Research Articles

Performance evaluation and degradation analysis of 20 MW photovoltaic power plant located in the southwestern highlands of Algeria

This article evaluates the performance of a 20 MW grid-connected photovoltaic system installed in the Naama region, southwestern highlands of Algeria. The production database used in this work was recorded between January 1, 2017, and December 2022, from the plant’s SCADA system. During the first 5 years of production, the final yield varied from 3.88 in winter 2020 to 6.30 h/day in summer 2017, while the reference yield varied from 4.45 to 7.05 h/day, the annual average performance ratio is equal to 83.35%, and the annual average capacity factor was found to be 20.05% for the monitored period. These data are then compared with the predicted outcomes by a detailed difference analysis using three widely used PV simulation tools: PVsyst, SAM, and PVSol. Results indicate that the actual data strongly coincide with those predicted by the PVsyst simulation, as confirmed by statistical indices. However, the degradation of the PV plants over the monitored period is quantified using a linear model and a CSD model and is estimated at −1.43 and −1.55 %/year, respectively. In summary, the photovoltaic system performance indices obtained are satisfactory compared to large-scale photovoltaic systems reported in other studies. Practical applications This study evaluates the performance and degradation of a 20 MWp photovoltaic system located in the highlands of Algeria. The results of this article will serve as a baseline for the future construction of PV plants to raise awareness among decision-makers about the beginnings of the deterioration of installations to allocate a budget for the maintenance and operation of these installations. The findings of this study have the potential to contribute to the wider adoption of Photovoltaic systems as a viable alternative to traditional energy in Algeria and especially in the Highlands.

Long-term performance of grid-integrated solar photovoltaic system on institutional buildings in tropical wet and dry climates of India - a practical study.

This study presents a long-term performance analysis of a one-mega-watt power grid-connected PV plant installed on the rooftop of GITAM University,Visakhapatnam,Andhra Pradesh, India for 3 years. The 1000 kWp PV plant design, performance analysis, economic feasibility, and greenhouse gas reduction are provided. For 3 consecutive years (2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021), the energy yields, performance ratio (PR), capacity utilisation factor (CUF) and efficiency are evaluated. The plant was established in 2018 with a peak power of 1000 kWp. The system feeds the state grid with all of the electricity it produces. The system is continuously monitored and analysed using yield, efficiency and performance parameters for 36 months (September 2018 to August 2021). Solar irradiation data has been collected from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) database for these years. The system comprises 3078 PV modules, 23 inverters rating 20 kW/50 kW, a data logger and a Net-metering unit. The annual energy generation of the PV plant recorded during the study period is 1376.29 MWh, 1265.541 MWh and 1115.73 MWh. The annual average performance ratio for the first three consecutive years is observed as 0.68, 0.62 and 0.58, whereas the yearly average capacity factors are 15.5%, 14.11% and 12.72%, respectively. The overall system efficiency of the PV system during the study period is 11.39%. Compared to the country's current conventional thermal power plants, we predict that rooftop PV systems may reduce CO2 emissions by 2145.406 tCO2eq for the base year, based on the electricity produced by this PV plant. The grid-integrated photovoltaic plant in this study is compared to other systems in the literature for performance assessment.

Technical modelling of solar photovoltaic water pumping system and evaluation of system performance and their socio-economic impact

Water is a precious resource for agriculture and most of the land is irrigated by tube wells. Diesel engines and electricity-operated pumps are widely used to fulfill irrigation water requirements; such conventional systems are inefficient and costly. With rising concerns about global warming, it is important to choose renewable energy source. In this study, SPVWPS has been optimally designed considering the water requirement, solar resources, tilt angle and orientation, losses in both systems and performance ratio. A PVSyst and SoSiT simulation tools were used to perform simulation analysis of the designed solar photovoltaic WPS. After designing and performance analysis, farmers were interviewed during fieldwork to assess socioeconomic impacts. In the result section, performance of PV system is analyzed at various tilt angles and it is established that system installed at a 15° tilt angle is more efficient. The annual PV array virtual energy at MPP of designed photovoltaic system is 33342 kWh and the annual energy available to operate the WPS is 23502 kWh. Module array mismatch and ohmic wiring losses are 374.16 kWh and 298.83 kWh, respectively. The total annual water demand of the selected site is 80769 m³ and designed SPWPS pumped 75054 m³ of water, supplying 92.93% of the irrigation demand. The normalized values of the effective energy, system losses, collection losses and unused energy in the SPVWP system are 2.6 kW/kWp/day, 0.69 kW/kWp/day, 0.72 kW/kWp/day and 0.48 kW/kWp/day, respectively. The annual average performance ratio of the proposed system is 74.62%. The results of the interviews showed that 70% of farmers are extremely satisfied with the performance of SPVWPS and 84% of farmers indicated that they did not incur any operating costs. The unit cost of the SPWPS is 0.17 €/kWh, which is 56.41% and 19.04% less expensive than the cost of diesel and grid electricity.

Performance Analysis and Degradation of a Large Fleet of PV Systems

This article presents an initial performance analysis of a database of photovoltaic (PV) system performance time series collected within the European funded COST Action PEARL PV. The database contains monitoring data of over 8400 PV systems with accompanying metadata. The PV plants are small residential systems, primarily installed in Europe, with a high density in Belgium. In this initial study, the annual average performance ratio, the annual energy yield, and the performance loss rate of the systems are determined and evaluated. The systems have an average lifetime of 30.5 months. The annual mean performance ratio across all systems is 76.7% and the average yield is 954.9 kWh/kWp per year. The performance loss rate is calculated using three different statistical approaches and one irradiance data source. Average performance losses between $-$0.74%/year and $-$0.86%/year are calculated depending on the used approach. Furthermore, certain weather-dependent correlations are detected, such as decreasing performance ratio and increasing yield values with increasing irradiation. This study is a stepping-stone for further populating the present database, lessons learnt for handling large amounts of PV performance data, and carrying out performance studies of PV system fleets installed across Europe.

Performance Evaluation of 780 Wp Rooftop Solar PV Power Backup System in Western Kenya

Aim: This study aimed to carry out performance analysis of a 780 Wp PV power backup system installed at a learning institution in Western.
 Study design: To achieve this goal, site solar radiation received, ambient temperatures, dc current and dc voltages were measured in order to carry out performance evaluation of the PV backup system.
 Place and Duration of Study: Department of electronics and electrical, Kaiboi Technical Training Institute in Nandi County, western Kenya was studied, between January 2020 and December 2020.
 Methodology: Performance of any PV system depends on the operating conditions (solar radiation, ambient/module temperature, etc.) available at the site (geolocation dependent), installation (tilt and orientation) of the arrays, and finally proper system sizing (PV array, battery, BOS). In this paper, standard performance parameters reported in literature were utilized to evaluate the performance of the studied PV backup system. The array comprises of four panels interconnected in series/parallel to produce an output power rating of 780 W. A Pyranometer was mounted on the plane of array (POA) to measure solar radiation intercepted by the PV array where daily data were acquired at an interval of five minutes. I-v data were also recorded. Different literature was reviewed to identify the way to do this work.
 Results: Based on the performance of the studied PV system, results obtained show that annual effective energy output is 3412.94 kWh, array efficiency range between 11.6% to 14.1% depending on amount of solar radiation, array yield of 4.88 kWh/kW, reference yield of 5.5 kWh/kW, annual average performance ratio of 76.3% and average array capture losses of 0.52 kWh/kW.
 Conclusion: It found that the PV backup system need ~5-6 hours to operate at the array’s rated output power, and that the PV backup system performance is adequate with regard to yield and performance ratios.

ANALYSIS PERFORMANCE OF LARGE SCALE GRID CONNECTED PV POWER PLANTS IN THE TROPICAL REGION.

The main objective of this research is analysed and compared the performance of two solar power plants to identify the possible operational problems in the tropical region. The grid connected PV power plants considered in the present study, Ten Merina and Senergy, were installed in the region of Thies (Senegal). Solar power plants have the same installed capacity 29.491 MWp. A period of one operation year of the solar power plants is considered, starting from January 2018 to December 2018. The performance parameters developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) are used to analyse the performances of solar power plants. The results show that the plane of array irradiance at the sites is identical with an annual average of 6.2 kWh/m2/d. The annual average performance ratio and final yield of solar power plants are respectively 74.3 %; 4.61 kWh/kWp to Ten Merina and 75.9 %; 4.66 kWh/kWp to Senergy. These results are compared to other solar power plants installed in different locations around the world.

DESIGN AND SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF 1 MWP GRID-CONNECTED PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM AT GAZIANTEP AIRPORT, TURKEY

The use of photovoltaic power plants is gradually increasing in order to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions at airports. Airports are suitable settlements for the installation of photovoltaic power plants as they have vast and free of shade areas that are not used in aviation activities. In this study, a 1 MWp photovoltaic power plant is proposed for Gaziantep Airport, Turkey. Performance, economic and environmental benefits of the proposed system were analyzed using the PVsyst simulation tool developed by the University of Geneva in Switzerland. The study demonstrates that Gaziantep Airport is suitable to installation of a grid-connected photovoltaic system and has a high solar energy resource. The proposed photovoltaic power plant at Gaziantep Airport is predicted to operate with an annual electricity generation of 1702.09 MWh, 78.6 % annual average performance ratio (PR), 19.43 % average capacity factor (CF) and 4.67 [h/d] annual average daily final yield.

Performance analysis and investigations of grid-connected Solar Power Park in Kurnool, South India

The Government of India had initially aimed at an installed capacity of 20 GW solar PV power generation by 2022. However, India has 29.41 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) plants as of now, which shows that the target is achieved three years ahead of schedule. Kurnool solar power park is one of the largest solar parks in India, receiving an excellent average solar radiation of 5.5–6.0 kWh/m2. As part of this project, a 50 MW solar photovoltaic system has been installed at Kurnool. This paper determines the performance parameters for analysis. The system was monitored from April 2018 to March 2019. The performance ratio varied between 75% and 83%, giving an annual average performance ratio of 79.94%. The capacity utilization factor varied between 18.90% and 29.34%, giving an annual average capacity utilization factor of 24.65%. The gain of modules with single-axis tracking system is compared with the fixed-tilt angle system. It is found that the single-axis tracking system improves the performance of the plant.

Techno-Economic Evaluation of a Grid-Connected Solar PV Plant in Syria

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the techno-economic feasibility of installing a 300 kW grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Syria. Umm Al-Zaytun village in As-Suwayda province was chosen as a location of the plant, because it is characterized by the high annual solar irradiance on the horizontal surface of about 1900 kW h/m2. Technical performance analysis, system configuration, detailed losses and energy yield simulation for a proposed PV plant were performed, using the PVsyst software. The simulation results show, that the annual optimal tilt angle of PV modules is 25°, energy production is 493 MWh/yr, the annual average performance ratio is 0.799 and the capacity factor is 18.7%. In addition, by considering, that the electric power consumption per capita in Syria is 2232 kW h/yr, so the proposed solar power plant with 493 MW h/yr can provide energy to 220 capita/yr and save about 42.4 tons of oil equivalent yearly with carbon emission reduction of about 320.45 tCO2/yr. The economic evaluation of the proposed PV plant was carried out by Excel software with consideration, that the discount rate is 9%, the lifetime of the project is 25 years and the selling price of electricity to Syrian electricity distribution establishment is 0.119 $/kW h. The results of economic calculations show, that levelized cost of electricity is 0.094 $/kW h, the discounted payback period is about 11 years, the internal rate of return is 14%, profitability index is 1.46 and the net present value is 190587.3 $. As a result, the proposed grid-connected PV solar plant is considered economically, technically and environmentally feasible in Syria.

Performance Analysis of Large Scale Grid Connected PV Plants in the MENA Region

This study is an attempt to investigate the potential of electricity production from large scale Photovoltaic (PV) plants in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. For this reason, three different PV plants configurations, with different capacities: 50, 70 and 100 MWp, were selected for simulation under the climate of ten locations in MENA region. Those locations are well distributed in the region and they have a GHI (Global horizontal irradiation) values between 1683,01 and 2445,39 kWh/m2/year. After that, in order to evaluate and benchmark the region’s PV performance and capacity production, the simulation results of the 100 MWp plant were compared with those simulated under the climate of the US and Spain for the same plant configuration. The results show that the average yearly electricity production from the 100 MWp plant in MENA is around 158 GWh/year, while the same configuration produces 155,8 GWh/year and 155,4 GWh/year if installed in Almeria, Spain and Bakersfield California respectively. For MENA region, the annual average performance ratio (PR) and yield factor (Yf) are of 73,2% and 1578,2 KWh/KWp respectively, whereas, those values are of 74,8% and 1555,9KWh/KWp for Spain and of 73,8% and 1555,2 KWh/KWp for the US. Generally, we can say that a 100 MWp PV plant can be a good option if installed in MENA region, and it may have a better performance than the US and southern Spain in some locations.

Experimental validation of performance and degradation study of canal-top photovoltaic system

The canal-top PV systems have different environmental conditions than the land-based system which may affect its performance and degradation rate. The performance and reliability of PV modules on the canal and reservoir are critical for ensuring the long lifetime, improvement and economic viability of the canal-top PV systems. The long-term performance analysis of the canal-top PV systems and their comparison with conventional land-based PV systems is not reported widely. The objective of the present study is to assess the suitability of PV systems on the canals for their large scale installations and reliable operation. In order to understand the long-term performance behavior of the PV systems on the canals, the performance and degradation analysis of world’s first commercial multicrystallinesilicon (Multi-Si) based 10 MWp canal-top PV system installed in the Indian state of Gujarat has been carried out for their initial 2 years 8 months operation. An experimental setup was fabricated to compare the performance of canal-top PV systems with the conventional land-based PV systems and measurements were carried out in the outdoor conditions for six months in the outdoor laboratory of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. To achieve a better understanding of the performance and degradation of PV modules, a single-diode PV model was developed to characterize the PV modules. Furthermore, the evaporation loss reduction by canal-top PV systems has not been reported widely and has been experimentally quantified under this study. The annual average performance ratio and degradation rate of 10 MWp canal-top PV system are found to be 77.85% and 1.93 ± 0.28%/year, respectively. Experimental comparison of water tank-based PV module and land-based PV module shows that the average performance ratio of Multi-Si module on the water surface is about 1.5% lower compared to land-based Multi-Si module which is contrary to the general perception of higher power production by the Multi-Si PV systems on the canals.

Solar potential assessment and performance indices analysis of photovoltaic generator for isolated Lakshadweep island of India

Lakshadweep island is located in the Arabian Sea (8° and 12°13′ North Latitude, 71° and 74° East Longitude) of India where the island inhabitant depends upon the power generation from diesel generator because of inaccessibility to the grid power due to its location hinder. As an alternative viable option for this island, inhabitant is to use photovoltaic power generation. This paper presents the normalized performance results obtained from photovoltaic (PV) system and the solar potential assessment for four islands of Lakshadweep, mainly, Andrott, Kavaratti, Kiltan and Minicoy. The monthly average and annual average normalized performance parameters such as array yield, reference yield, array capture losses, system losses and performance ratio of 10kWp photovoltaic system is calculated. Besides, the monthly average and annual average capacity factor and cell temperature are also obtained. It is found that the obtained results for annual average performance ratio and capacity factor vary in the range of 64.22–65.83% and 15.51–16.09%, respectively. The annual average array yield, reference yield, final yield, array capture losses and system losses for the considered islands are found to be 4.13–4.29h/d (symbolized as h/d), 5.78–5.88h/d, 3.72–3.86h/d, 1.58–1.66h/d and 0.41–0.43h/d, respectively.

Active multi-effect vertical solar still: Mathematical modeling, performance investigation and enviro-economic analyses

In this paper, year round performance and enviro-economic analyses of active multi-effect vertical solar still were carried out using the developed comprehensive mathematical model. The optimum number of effects, mass flow rate of feed water and gap between the effects were found to be five, 7.20kg/h and 0.05m, respectively. Maximum annual average distillate yield of 6.78 and 21.29kg/m2-d was noticed for the optimized unit under normal mode and low pressure mode operation. Maximum annual average Performance ratio (PR) and Solar energy Coefficient of Performance (SCP) of 5.59 and 3.03 was noticed under evacuated mode operation. Energy payback time and distilled water production cost of the evacuated unit treating 5wt% saline water was around 1.37yrs and Rs.2272.00/m3 (33.00USD/m3), respectively and it can effectively mitigate at least 81.81tons of CO2 emission during its life time of 20yrs. Distilled water production cost of the evacuated unit was found to reduce from Rs.2270.00/m3 (33.00USD/m3) to Rs.1310.00/m3 (19.00USD/m3) by decreasing the interest rate from 12% to 5%. Salinity of feed water and interest rate at which the unit was financed played a major role in distilled water production cost.

Performance analysis of a 190 kWp grid interactive solar photovoltaic power plant in India

The performance analysis of a 190 kWp solar photovoltaic power plant installed at Khatkar-Kalan, India, is carried out. The final yield, reference yield and performance ratio, are found to vary from 1.45 to 2.84 kWh/kWp-day, 2.29 to 3.53 kWh/kWp-day and 55–83% respectively. The annual average performance ratio, capacity factor and system efficiency are found to be 74%, 9.27% and 8.3% respectively. The average annual measured energy yield of the plant is found to be 812.76 kWh/kWp. The average annual predicted energy yield is found to be 823 kWh/kWp using PVSYST. The estimated energy yield is in close agreement with measured results with an uncertainty of 1.4%. The total estimated system losses due to irradiance, temperature, module quality, array mismatch, ohmic wiring and inverter, are found to be 31.7%. The study shows that energy generated is maximum during March, September, and October and minimum in January. The performance of the system is compared with PV systems installed worldwide and found comparable. The results presented provide insight to the long-term performance of the solar power plant under actual operating conditions in India. The need for optimizing solar panel inclination is emphasized for maximizing power generation. Further, follow-up research studies are also identified.