Solar PVs Research Articles

Parametric life cycle assessment for distributed combined cooling, heating and power integrated with solar energy and energy storage

In this research, we develop a parametric life cycle assessment framework and evaluate the environmental and economic trade-offs of a distributed combined cooling, heating, and power system integrated with renewable energy and energy storage system (CCHP-RE-ESS). Also, we compare this to centralized conventional energy generation. The CCHP-RE-ESS system consists of microturbines, solar PVs, lithium-ion batteries, and other auxiliary system components. Using a parametric life cycle assessment approach, we learn the trade-offs environmental and economic impacts for various sizes of solar PVs arrays and batteries. The emission impact result from the parametric life cycle assessment is more accurate than the conventional life cycle assessment due to hourly-based simulation and parametric models for different system components. Our simulations show that the proposed system that follows the thermal load can primarily reduce the overall environmental impact as compared to the centralized conventional energy production for most building types and climate zones we studied. For example, the system can help a medium office in Atlanta reduce 46% of global warming impact, 98% of water usage, 93% of acidification impact, etc. In terms of cost, the life cycle cost of the proposed system is often higher than conventional energy generation while it is more economical for the small and large office than the medium office.

Chinas Growth in Residential Solar Roof Tops-A Booster for India

China is the world’s largest producer of photovoltaic -PV power with total installed solar capacity surpassing the early leaders in solar energy developed countries viz;USA, Germany, Japan,Italy,France, and UK.The electricity consumption of China exceeds that of any other nation and China is also the top-most solar producer with fast- growing PV systems. This paper focuses on Residential Solar PV and the progress made by China-its evolution of solar policies,trends, challenges overcome, progress made and the future of sustainable solar energy development envisaged by China.A comparison of the trajectory of growth in Residential Solar PVs in India is made to analyze the concrete government policies in this segment and the consistency and growth of RSTPV in India. The challenges faced by India and the reasons for slow growth in this sector are explored.The time is now ripe for India to focus on the RSTPV segment while implementing the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission(JNNSM) and learning lessons from China’s experiences to become a global PV leader in harnessing solar energy.

Energy storage technologies as techno-economic parameters for master-planning and optimal dispatch in smart multi energy systems

Smart multi-energy systems based on distributed polygeneration power plants have gained increasing attention for having shown the capability of significant primary energy savings and reduced CO2 pollutant emissions due to the high renewable energy sources penetration. Compared to the traditional power plants, the large variability in the end-user demands (electricity, heat and cold energy), coupled with the uncertainty in the solar and wind energy availability, require the adoption of energy storage systems for dampening the intermittency problems and for performing peak shaving. In a multi-energy system, energy storage technologies typically exist in the form of electrochemical energy and thermal energy storage. Costs and technological limits of energy storage systems are the key parameters that influence the optimal design and operation of the system. In this paper, by adopting an in-house developed simulation tool (©E-OPT) based on mixed integer quadratic programming, a sensitivity analysis has been carried out for investigating the techno-economic impact of different storage technologies (i.e. lithium-ion, Vanadium redox, ice and phase change material thermal storage) for optimally designing and operating a multi-energy system. Two case studies, characterized by electricity and peak cooling demand of 1600 kWe and 3000 kWc respectively, have been assessed and the results of master-planning and optimal dispatch discussed for two scenarios, grid-connected and island mode. The results show that multi-energy systems which include combined heat and power units, solar PVs and energy storage systems lead to achieve more than 1.1 $M and 4.5 $M savings in net present value and 15% and 25% reduction in CO2 emissions, when compared with traditional power plant generation.

Grid Connected-Photovoltaic System (GC-PVS): Issues and Challenges

Smart grid is the key technology for an effective utilization of the Renewable Energy Sources (RES). The utilization of RES for the generation of electricity is increasingly gaining interest of researchers during the last decades. The main reason behind this is global incentivization, the increasing price of petroleum products, climate issues and deregulations in the energy market. As the Government of India, (MNRE i.e. Ministry of New & Renewable Energy) is targeting to generate 20000 MW power through grid-connected solar PVS by the year 2022 therefore, the main focus in this paper has been presented on power generation through grid-connected PVS. The emerging smart grid technology has enabled the grid-connected PVS as an evolving process in today’s world for electrical power generation. However, apart from so many advantages, there are several issues and challenges associated with the integration of PVS to the electric utility grid hence, the investigation to find out available possible solutions to overcome these issues becomes essential in order to enhance the performance of grid-connected PVS. The most severe constraint associated with this emerging technology is it high penetration level. If during low load conditions there is some mismatch found between the real power output and the load profile characteristics of PVS then it may result into large reverse power flow, high power losses or severe voltage violation. In this paper, several issues and challenges associated with the integration of solar PVS with the electric utility grid are presented.

Comparison of U.S. Manufacturing Locations for Solar PVs

The market for solar renewable energy has expanded extensively due to decreased levelized cost of energy and the appeal of zero carbon emissions during generation. Solar PV systems provide low-cost, flexible opportunities for utilizing renewable energy in manufacturing sectors, which globally consume 33% of all primary energy and produce 37% of carbon dioxide emissions. This study explores three U.S. states (California, New Jersey, and Texas) for economic and environmental consequences of mounting onsite solar PV systems at manufacturing facilities. The objective of the study is to measure the effect of various financial incentives and locational differences on the economic viability and environmental performance of solar PV systems.

Transient Stability Improvement Using Coordinated Control of Solar PVs and Solid State Transformers

An optimization coordinated controller applied for solar farm together with a solid state transformer in order to improve transient stability is presented in this paper. Transient stability issues in a modern electrical power grid represent one of the challenge topics for an electrical engineer because uncertain renewable energy resources (RES) are increased because of a demand for green energy requirement. This increased RES can adversely disturb a terminal voltage; consequently, a damage to electrical equipment can happen. In order to solve a transient response issue, it is possible to use a solid state transformer (SST) or intelligent transformer, used to interface between RES and a power grid. SST consists of a set of converters which can be modulated via the converters to maintain the desired voltage levels; thus, this solution can reduce transient response and power fluctuation concurrently. For this reason, this paper presents a controller design for a solar photovoltaic (SPV), connected to a power grid via SST in order to enhance the quality of power injections from RES to improve transient stability of the electrical system. The optimization of a controller model is proposed by modifying a PI controller from a commercial one. The proposed controller is validated with the standard IEEE 39 buses. The validation scenario of both an uncertainty due to time delay accounting for a range of 425ms-525ms and various solar radiation patterns are also taken into account for the evaluation of a proposed controller performance. Simulation results demonstrate that power fluctuation due to uncertain RES can be mitigated by using the proposed controller. Moreover, in case of large disturbances such as a circuit breaker tripping to open a power line due to a fault, the proposed coordinated control of SPV and SST can satisfactorily perform to suppress severe voltage swings within an electrical device rated voltage limit to protect catastrophe damage. The results suggest that the proposed controllers can be alternative solutions in order to solve a transient stability issue due to uncertain increased RES in a modern power grid.

Technological development of multi-energy complementary system based on solar PVs and MGT

The complementary micro-energy network system consisting of solar photovoltaic power generation (solar PVs) and micro-gas turbine (MGT), which not only improves the absorption rate and reliability of photovoltaic power, but also has the advantages of low emission, high efficiency, and good fuel adaptability, has become one of the most promising distributed power systems in the field of micro grid. According to the development of current technology and the demand of actual work, this research described the domestic and foreign development of micro-energy network system based on solar PVs and MGT. Moreover, it analyzed the challenges and future development regarding the micro-energy network system in planning and design, energy utilization optimization and dispatching management, and system maintenance, respectively. Furthermore, it predicted the future development of the key technology of the multi-energy complementary system. These results will be beneficial for the progress of this field both in theory and practice.

Solar-DC micro-grids for multi-storied building complexes in emerging nations

Growing economies like India are likely to construct many homes and buildings over the next 15 years. Since availability of power in these countries is limited and power is expensive, large-scale decentralised solar PVs, with falling solar PV costs and minimal installation costs, are attractive. While DC power line provides considerable advantage for new homes and building complexes, a lot of work on standardisation of voltages, guidelines for wiring practices and making DC-powered appliances available still needs to be done. However, India took the lead, first focusing on off-grid homes. A 48V DC microgrid with a 125W solar PV and effective battery storage of 0.5kWh is now powering about 5,000 off-grid homes in India, resulting in huge energy and cost savings. Similar advantages apply to offices and multi-storied building complexes. This paper is a study of such pilot implementations and ecosystem development that made these building-owners adopt DC power lines. This paper discusses the architecture used for DC power in these buildings, use of combined 230V AC and 48V DC as well as combined 380V DC and 48V DC. It describes an ecosystem for DC appliances, test implementations in three types of buildings and some early results from such deployments.

Targeting and modelling urban energy retrofits using a city-scale energy mapping approach

City authorities, community groups and retrofit installers need to identify suitable local areas and dwellings for installing energy retrofit measures. This paper presents a localised Geographical Information System (GIS) based approach that utilizes publicly-available national and local datasets on housing and energy to provide targeted low carbon measures across UK cities. The study uses a rapid city-level energy assessment approach to spatially identify suitable neighbourhoods for particular retrofit measures, based on relative energy use and fuel poverty ratings. A GIS-based carbon mapping model (called DECoRuM) is then used to estimate energy use and potential for energy reduction on a house-by-house level. The improvement measures are aggregated to encourage bulk installations and drive down installation costs.To identify an appropriate neighbourhood case study area, publicly available datasets were assessed for the town of Bicester (Oxfordshire, UK), which included Ordnance Survey Mastermap, Energy Performance Certificate data (EPC) and sub-national energy statistics available at lower layer super output area (LSOA). When the EPC data for Bicester were compared with the sub-national statistics for Bicester, the average difference was found to be ∼800 kWh. This is interesting as EPCs represent dwelling specific but modelled data whereas sub-national datasets represent actual but aggregated data. Superimposing the above datasets, a neighbourhood in southwest Bicester was selected as having the highest percentage of dwellings with energy consumption >300 kWh/m2/yr (EPC), most dwellings in need of wall insulation (EPC), second highest mean total energy consumption (sub-national), and third highest percentage of fuel poor dwellings (sub-national). House-level energy assessment in the selected area using DECoRuM showed that a package based approach comprising fabric and heating system upgrade and solar PVs emerged as the most effective.

Coordinated voltage control in LV grid with solar PVS: development, verification and field trial

The increasing share of distributed renewable energy resources may lead voltage violation problems in low-voltage (LV) network. However, a number of smart grid solutions are developed, only very limited number of solutions are being implemented in real field. Therefore, in this study, on-load tap changer based smart solution is verified using a real rural LV network in Slovenia. The field trial revealed that redundancy and cyber security are the main concerns for distribution system operator, which are addressed in this field trial.

Harvesting maximal PV energy with fine grained energy distribution: An alternative to traditional PV systems in buildings

The existing renewable technology in use, particularly solar PVs for homes and other buildings, is billed as a significant step towards providing more robust, secure and affordable electricity. However, unavailability of electricity buyback programs in many regions, and recent changes in buyback policies in some countries make solar costlier due to the need for extra storage in the system. To this end, we present our system called SMaRTI: Self-Managing Renewable Technology Integration. This system is mainly designed for places where the utility grid is available, but for various reasons any excess electrical energy cannot be put back onto the grid through buyback programs. In traditional hybrid or grid-tied PV systems with battery backup, the electrical energy from the PV and the grid are tied at the inverter output. However, in SMaRTI this tying up is carried out at multiple distribution points in the system, giving SMaRTI an opportunity to optimize the PV output more efficiently. By using SMaRTI, not only one can utilize up to 98% of electrical energy generated by PV system but also the cost of ownership is reduced by more than 40% over a ten years period.

Optimal Hybrid Power System Using Renewables and Hydrogen for an Isolated Island in the UK

Abstract A distributed electrical power system using renewable generations (RG) on an island was studied. The original system includes micro hydropower stations, wind turbines and solar PVs with a bank of batteries for storage of the extra power from the renewables; and two diesel generators were used as the back-up units. From the analysis of historic electricity generation and consumption data, it was found that the RG alone could not meet the total demand and the diesel generator(s) needed running occasionally in 8 months in one year. In order to make the electric power supply completely from renewables, one novel solution using hydrogen generated from extra renewable electricity to replace diesel as the fuel for the diesel generators was proposed, i.e. a sub-system of renewable hydrogen generation (RHG), which composed of extra wind turbines, a water electrolyser and a hydrogen storage tank, were added to the renewable system. A technical and economic performance evaluation of the RG system was carried out using HOMER software. The results showed that the RHG sub-system produced and stored enough hydrogen for the diesel generator(s) to generate electricity whenever needed. In this way, the power supply on the island will be completely from renewables and zero CO 2 emission without using diesel. The cost of electricity (COE) of the new system was £0.776 per kilowatt hour.

Techno-economic, environmental, and safety assessment of hydrogen powered community microgrids; case study in Canada

This paper proposes a comprehensive design of a renewable hydrogen powered microgrid that can provide backup power to a community in Cornwall, Ontario when disconnected from the power grid. The work employs the implementation of the energy hub concept to optimally design and operate energy generation systems to meet energy loads of a community. Solar PVs, wind turbines, electrolysers, hydrogen tanks, fuel cells and fuel cell vehicles are considered as the components that make up the entire system providing energy within the community. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is done to assess the safety of hydrogen based microgrid.The major load centers include a fresh food distribution center and a residential complex, where the peak demand is ∼5410 kW. The results of a mixed integer linear programming optimization problem show that a renewable energy generation system size of 2000 kW (400 kW-solar Photovoltaic and 1600 kW-wind turbine) is required. In addition to this, a backup fuel cell generation system of 3000 kW is also needed for the two-day blackout period. One of the positive attributes of implementing vehicle to grid services during islanded operation mode is that it enables the community to offset investment in fuel cell backup generation capacity by 1000 kW. Thirty-eight Toyota Mirai have been used to provide the vehicle to grid service. Due to the scale of the system, it is observed that even after proposing the use of existing market pricing mechanisms for the services offered by the microgrid, the energy system does not have a positive net present value at the end of its project life. Therefore, further economic incentives in the form of bundling costs need to be sanctioned for cleaner microgrid energy systems to be developed. This submission was the Grand Prize Winner of the Hydrogen Education Foundation's 2016 Hydrogen Student Design Contest.

Environmental analysis of perovskites and other relevant solar cell technologies in a tandem configuration

A PKSn,Pb/PKPb tandem was found to be the most promising PV technology for lowering the environmental impacts from solar PVs.

Architecture and Engineering of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Generation Based on Renewable Energy

The paper presents an architecture and engineering of hydrogen fuel cell electric power generation system based on renewable energy that already installed in Tenjolaya village, Wanassalam sub-district, Lebak - Banten Province. It also discloses some important information as well as some valuable experiences from the pilot plant operation. The renewable electric power generation system combines wind turbine, photovoltaic, hydrogen electrolysis and fuel cell. The basic design of this system is focused on energy storage in the form of hydrogen gas that can be converted back into electricity by using fuel cell units. The engineering development was done to address the issues on limited energy storage in the battery unit which has several drawbacks i.e. short battery lifetime, limited storage capacity and rigorous and continuous maintenance schedule. To enable remote control and monitoring, a web based monitoring system was developed. From the monitoring system the following information are obtained: the amount of electrical power produced by the wind turbine that was intermittent and depends on time that reached 3000 W; similar pattern is observed from the output power of solar PVs and a maximum point of the solar cell power generation was 640 Watt; the time of electricity production by the wind turbine and the solar cell is complementary to each other in every one day cycle. Two valuable experiences have been gained those are: the location near sea shore has a very corrosive air that damages the wind turbine component, and the use of fuel cell requires high investment cost.

Sustainability Assessment of Complex Energy Systems Using Life Cycle Approach-Case Study: Arizona State University Tempe Campus

Solar PVs are widely proposed as sustainable alternatives to electricity generation from fossil fuels to fulfil the ever-growing energy demands. They have demonstrated great potentials to mitigate devastating environmental impacts of power generation; but, is it enough for a sustainable development? The aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of how large scale deployment of solar power generation would affect sustainability of a community energy infrastructure. Along with site-specific environmental impacts, cost and social dimensions of sustainability are also considered throughout the life cycle of energy systems and fuels. The proposed framework acknowledges different perspectives and captures the complexities and limitations of power generation.We developed a multi-criteria sustainability appraisal framework to evaluate and compare the sustainability of two different fuel mix scenarios. In this study, accountability of the energy system as well as the safety and resource depletion issues are included as Social Impacts by introducing proper indicators. Assessment results indicated that solar PVs performance has to be improved in cost and social sustainability criteria. The paper also explores the challenges and complexities of sustainability evaluation of energy systems and identifies the bottlenecks of solar PVs deployment in large scales. We concluded that the rate of large-scale penetration of photovoltaics with the purpose of sustainability enhancement should be addressed by adaptive management approaches examining energy demands, solar PV manufacturing and efficiency improvement trends.

Energy management and economics of a trigeneration system Considering the effect of solar PV, solar collector and fuel price

The effect of solar PVs, solar collectors and fuel price on optimization of a typical micro combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system based on a natural-gas generator (NGG) was investigated. The CCHP system was considered to supply the given cooling, heating and electricity demand of a 5 story high residential building; having a total of 1000m2 floor area with the peak electricity of 48kW, heating and cooling needs of 100 and 50kW, respectively. If Iran removes the fuel subsidy, the cost of fuel would increase and the PV or hybrid PV/Generator systems would become more attractive. In this paper, a techno-economical procedure was conducted by using two definitions of loss of power supply probability (LPSP) and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). The results indicated that the optimal operation strategy changes with boiler and NGG fuel prices while it also changes with increasing the number of solar collectors.

Empowering Distributed Solar PV Energy for Malaysian Rural Housing: Towards Energy Security and Equitability of Rural Communities

This paper illustrates on how Malaysia’s development landscapes has been poweredby cheap oil and gas making it dependent and addicted on using large amounts of fossil fuels. As acountry that is primarily depended on fossil fuels for generating power supply, Malaysia needs tocogitate of long-term energy security due to fossil fuel depletion and peak oil issues. Loss of theseresources could leadto thereduction of power generation capacitywhich will threaten the stabilityof the electricity supply in Malaysia. This could potentially influence in an increase in electricitycosts which lead to a phase of power scarcity and load shedding for the country. With the risk ofinterrupted power supplies, rural households, especially those of low-income groups areparticularly vulnerable to the post-effects of a power outage and an inequitable distribution to thepeople. Distributed generation of electricity by solar PVs diminishes the vulnerability of thesehouseholds and can also offer an income to them by feeding the power supply to the national gridthrough Feed-in Tariff scheme. At the moment, the deployment of solar PV installations is still inthe introductory stage in Malaysia, where roof-mounted PV panels are only available to commercialand urban residential buildings. This is due to the lack of a suitable renewable energy policy forrural households and the high cost of the solar PV technology. This paper will put forward ananalysis for incorporating solar photovoltaic on roofs of rural houses by identifying the energyconsumption of these households and the extent to which PVs can alleviate electricity insecurity.The results present significant potential for distributed PV power generation in rural areas inMalaysia which shown a considerable amount of electricity needed to be harvested from roofmountedsolar PV for rural people in Malaysia.

Comments on “Economic analysis of different supporting policies for the production of electrical energy by solar photovoltaics in western European Union countries” by Luigi Dusonchet and Enrico Telaretti

In Energy Policy, 38 (7) 3297–3308, Dusonchet and Telaretti contribute a significant deal to the field of PV comparative policy analysis in the EU by addressing the impact of the PV regulatory framework on the investment decisions of the sector—as determined by net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) indices—in seventeen Western EU countries. As a necessary first step, the authors bring off a concise and straightforward analysis of the different legal frameworks ruling solar PVS implementation in those countries.In the specific case of Spain we have identified some imprecision that could lead to misunderstandings about the role and impact of the PV legal framework on the massive expansion of the sector, especially during the so-called “Spanish PV Boom”.This note is intended to add on the authors' primary and challenging effort to provide a systematic analysis of the Spanish PV sector by contextualizing this period of hype and, on the basis of this analysis, contribute our own understanding about how the complexity and uncertainties generated by the successive frameworks might have triggered such a frenzied response by the market.

Influence of local environmental, social, economic and political variables on the spatial distribution of residential solar PV arrays across the United States

This study used ZIP code level data from the 2000 US Census to investigate the influence of local environmental, social, economic and political variables on the distribution of residential solar PV arrays across the United States. Current locations of residential solar PVs were documented using data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Open PV project. A zero-inflated negative binomial reression model was run to evaluate the influence of selected variables. Using the same model, predicted residential solar PV shares were generated and illustrated using GIS software. The results of the model indicate solar insolation, cost of electricity and amount of available financial incentives are important factors influencing adoption of residential solar PV arrays. Results also indicate the Southwestern region of the United States and the state of Florida are currently underperforming in terms of number of housing units with solar PV installations.