Techno-Economic Optimum Sizing of a Stand-Alone Solar Photovoltaic System

The techno-economic optimum sizing of a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system is a basic requirement for its proliferation. One of the primary concerns in designing a stand-alone PV system is the determination of an optimum relationship between the PV array and storage battery capacity to supply the required energy at a specified energy load fraction. In this paper, a complete analytical methodology has been presented for that. The solar radiation utilizability concept and the monthly average daily PV array efficiency have been used to estimate the performance of a stand-alone PV system and hence for the designing. The techno-economic optimization of a PV system has been done by using levelized energy cost computation based on the total number of battery replacements (brp's) through battery life-cycle model by using the solar radiation utilizability concept over the life period of the system. It has been found that energy load fractions as well as the number of brp's have a significant impact on the selection of optimum sizing of a stand-alone PV system.

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