The growing energy demand in developing nations
has triggered the issue of energy security. Exploiting renewable
energy sources for electricity production has been extensively
investigated over recent years, and many countries especially
Egypt have been working to promote the use of renewable energy
to decrease energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Egypt has a
climate, which is characterized by hot dry summers and mild
winters. Most of the country enjoys many hours of sunshine and
high levels of illumination. This has given birth to the widespread
use of solar water heaters, but as yet there has been little
development of domestic electricity generation using photovoltaic
(PV) panels.
Grid connected PV systems have become the best alternatives
in solar energy application, fast solution and economical.
Performance analysis of this grid connected prototype could help
in designing, operating and maintenance of new grid connected
systems.
A 5.5 kW photovoltaic grid connected prototype is installed
on the roof of Benha faculty of engineering, Benha, Egypt. The
site receives a good average solar radiation about 6.2
kWh/m2/day and annual average temperature of about 21.9 ºC.
The plant is designed to operate with a fixed tilt angle. In this
study the solar PV plant design aspects along with its annual
performance is investigated.
The various types of power losses (temperature, internal
network, power electronics, grid connected etc.) and
performance ratio are also calculated. The performance results
of the plant are also compared with other simulated results
obtained from PV-syst software. |
