A new approach to optimal sizing of components in stand-alone photovoltaic power systems

The problem of choosing component sizes in a stand-alone photovoltaic power system is expressed as a hierarchical optimisation problem in which system variable costs are calculated by optimising the operation of the system. It is then shown that dual variables which are a by-product of variable cost minimisation can be used to calculate the derivative of variable cost with respect to component sizes. These data can then be used to reduce total system cost in an iterative optimisation algorithm.