Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
161-174, 1995
~ Pergamon 0196-8904(94)00065-4
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V I N O D K U M A R S H A R M A , t A N T O N I O C O L A N G E L O and
G I U S E P P E SPAGNA
ENEA Research Centre, Trisaia, Department of Non-Nuclear Energy, 75025 Policoro (Matera), Italy
Abstract--Short descriptiveoutlines, both for the processes that occur in the photovoltaic effect and the
simplest form of a stand alone photovoltaic system, are described in the present paper. System sizing,
description of a few small to medium capacity PV installations, preliminary economic analysis, the
information needs for diffusing this technology into rural areas with particular reference to developing
countries etc. are other main subtopics discussed here.
INTRODUCTION
Due to the dispersion in rural areas of the specific energy demand and its low specific intensity,
it seems difficult to provide conventional energy sources (oil, coal, electricity from national grid),
especially because of the high transportation costs. However, it seems quite certain that the present
and future energy demands of agriculture and the rural areas could be satisfied through the use of
both conventional and renewable energy sources. For example, there is a large scope for utilization
of solar energy in developing countries, and if sustained efforts are made, non-conventional energy
sources can meet a significant part of the energy needs. Therefore, an option in the development
of agricultural and rural areas is the use of the renewable energy sources locally available and
installing autonomous and consistent plants to solve the various user points.
A m o n g a wide variety of renewable energy projects in progress, photovoltaic systems are the
most promising as a future energy technology. The final objective of photovoltaic technology,
however, is to obtain electricity from the sun that is cost competitive and even advantageous with
respect to other energy sources. This is, no doubt, already a reality in some environments, but of
their diffusion in rural areas, there still exists many constraints, and the problem needs to be
examined from the economic, technical, operational and institutional viewpoints. It has been felt
that the adoption of this technology could be stimulated through dissemination of information,
training services, subsidies and credit facilities. Efforts should be made to install such units with
the help of locally available technical skill. Real participation and self initiatives by the users may
slow down the process on a short-term basis but will lead to successful implementation in the long
run. Also, due consideration should be given to the users having access to this technology to achieve
their full participation.
As a first step in this direction, it is essential that potential users be made aware of the technology
through increased understanding of the processes and the fundamental principles on which it is based.
Installation of a few small to medium capacity photovoltaic units is very essential. Given this
context, the authors have tried to answer some of the basic questions raised above. It is hoped that
to dc loads
PV array
the present communication will be interesting for all those who, one way or the other, are involved
with this technology and especially those who want to learn more about it.
P H O T O V O L T A I C SYSTEMS
A photovoltaic system is an integrated assembly of modules and other components, designed to
convert solar energy into electricity to provide a particular service, either alone or in combination
with a back up supply. A module is the basic building block of a photovoltaic generator. It is
defined as the smallest complete, environmentally protected assembly of series connected solar cells.
The cells are encapsulated between a transparent window and a moisture proof backing to insulate
them electrically, as well as from the weather and accidental damage. Digital leads are provided
for connecting it to other modules or components or the load. The modules in a PV array are
connected in series strings to provide the required voltage, and if one string is not enough to provide
the required power, two or more strings are connected in parallel.
In its simplest form, a stand alone photovoltaic system consists of an array of one or more
photovoltaic modules supplying the load directly (Fig. 1). Such a system can be used for water
pumping, battery charging etc. The addition of an inverter makes the system suitable for domestic
supplies when the load consists of a.c. appliances (Fig. 2). Moreover, to carry the load during the
night or during periods of low irradiance, a storage battery with a charge regulator must be added
to the basic system (Figs 3, 4).
So, we have seen above that, in a complete photovoltaic system, the solar cell, inverter, regulator,
battery, rectifier etc. are the important components of the system that need to be understood
thoroughly. An attempt has been made to discuss all these components, one by one, in the following
sections.
to ac loads
PV array Inverter
to DC load
Charge
regulator
PV
array
BoRo~
to AC loads
Inverter
Charge
regulator
BaRe~
ECM 36/3--B
164 SHARMA et al.: A PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM FOR DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS
energy is converted into electricity. It can be seen that, if the external load resistance is very high,
we have an open circuit with zero current, whereas if the load resistance is negligible, we have a
short circuit in which the current is no doubt high but no power is delivered because the potential
drop across the load is negligible. So, at these two characteristic points, the power delivered to the
load vanishes and reaches its maximum value at some intermediate point called the maximum
power point (Pmax)" The power delivered at this maximum point is usually related to I~ and Vo~
by means of the fill factor, FF:
emax=lsc'Voc'FF
So, the efficiency of the cell is increased if these parameters are increased.
T H E P H O T O V O L T A I C M O D U L E AND ITS A S S E M B L Y
THEINVERTER
An inverter (Fig. 5) is a device that converts d.c. to a.c. and is one of the key elements in a
photovoltaic system for a.c. loads. In the case of an inverter system, the amount of d.c. power
required per day to supply an a.c. load is determined by the efficiency of the inverter. Hence, if
the system is operating with a low efficiency inverter, the amount of d.c. Wh required will be quite
high as compared to a system using a high efficiency inverter. So, it is very essential that the inverter
should not only be reliable but also highly efficient.
As stated above, the inverter converts the d.c. from the array or battery to single or three phase
a.c. to suit the load requirements. Especially, in the grid interactive system, output must meet the
necessary requirements in terms of voltage, frequency and the harmonic purity of the waveform.
Voltage requirements are met by the use of an additional transformer, whereas the harmonic
synthesis or pulse width modulator are the techniques being employed in the modern solid state
inverter to construct a sinusoidal output. The process by which the forward current is interrupted
or transferred from one switching device to another is called "commutation". Self commutated and
line commutated inverters are usually used in the stand alone a.c. and grid interactive systems,
respectively.
SHARMA et al.: A PHOTOVOLTAICSYSTEM FOR DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS 165
Transformer
[ ' load
÷ ±
m
Battery - -
storage m
The efficiency of a solid state inverter on full load is usually better than 95%. However, as in
a PV system, for most of the time, the inverter will be operating at less than full load and it is
important to choose one of an appropriate size with a good part-load efficiency.
THE BATTERIES
Due to the intermittent nature of solar energy, an appropriate storage system of storing the excess
energy during the active periods to carry the load during the inactive hours, or periods of low
irradiance, must be provided.
Although various methods of storing energy are, in principle, available, electrochemical batteries
appear to be ideal for both sustaining intermittent energy resources and load levelling operations.
A battery is based on an electrochemical c¢11which enables the direct conversion of chemical energy
into electricity.
The maximum amount of electricity which, at a specified discharge rate and electrolyte
temperature, a given battery is capable to deliver is referred to as the capacity and is measured
in Ampere-hours (Ah). A battery is very much affected by the depth of discharge, i.e. the percentage
of the total capacity withdrawn, that determines its effective cycle life. It is therefore very important
that the depth of discharge should, in no circumstances, exceed 80% and the battery should never
be left uncharged in this state for a long period. Overcharging also results in corrosion, plate growth
and loss of active material from the plates, leading to reduced life. On the other hand, repeated
failure to reach full charge can also have an adverse effect.
Another important factor in battery designing is the loss of electrolyte. To prevent this, some
batteries have catalytic devices over the cell vents, which causes the gases (oxygen and hydrogen)
to recombine into water.
The batteries in most PV systems are of the lead--acid type. The lead-acid battery is basically
formed by a lead negative electrode, a lead dioxide positive electrode and an aqueous sulphuric
acid electrolyte solution. They consist of one or more battery cells, each of which is rated at 2 V.
The most common configuration has six cells connected in series in order to obtain batteries with
a nominal voltage of 12 V. In PV systems, as the battery is expected to perform for a number of
days before recharge, the higher battery rating is used for sizing purposes.
It has recently been seen that nickel-cadmium pocket plate batteries are in many ways more
suited to operation in the PV system than the lead-acid types. The basic scheme of this battery
is presented as
Cd/KOH aq./NiO(OH).
More precisely, as shown above, the nickel-cadmium cells consist of a positive plate of nickel
packed with nickel hydroxide and a negative plate of cadmium immersed in a solution of potassium
hydroxide in water. The electrolyte plays no part in the electrochemical reaction but serves as a
charge carrier between the plates. Consequently, such batteries do not suffer from the problem of
electrolyte depletion and stratification which afflict lead-acid batteries. Also, the capacity of the
166 SHARMA et al.: A PHOTOVOLTAICSYSTEM FOR DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS
battery is not influenced much by the rate of discharge and the temperature rise. The batteries can
be fully discharged and are not damaged by long periods in this condition.
No doubt, as seen above, nickel--cadmium batteries are more suited to operation in PV systems
as compared to the lead-acid types, but so far, these are not diffused in the market. Apart from
the high cost involved, the growing concern about cadmium toxicity raises some questions on the
opportunity of keeping the production at the actual levels. Under the circumstances, further
research efforts are still needed to make such batteries defect-free, as well as cost effective.
THE d.c./d.c. C O N V E R T E R S
In modern solid state converters, the transformation from one d.c. voltage to another is usually
achieved by high frequency chopping, using transistors. An efficiency of over 95% at full load can
be expected. Of course, a converter is not necessary if the desired voltage can be provided directly
from the array, by suitable arrangements of modules. A MPPT has built-in control logic, usually
operated by a microprocessor that senses the array voltage and current at frequent intervals,
computes the power output and compares it with the previous value.
T H E BATTERY C O N T R O L L E R S
A battery controller is a device which regulates the charge current and prevents over charging.
In photovoltaic systems, such devices can regulate the charge current either by interrupting
the array current (series type) or by short-circuiting sections of the array (shunt type). As
short-circuiting will aggravate any tendency to hot spot failure, the series type is not always
advisable.
A more sophisticated type embodies a microprocessor which maintains battery current, voltage
and temperature, computes the state of charge and regulates the input and output currents so as
to avoid overcharging and excessive discharge. Due to some technical, as well as physical, problems,
the performance of such controllers with lead-acid batteries is not yet satisfactory.
S I Z I N G OF A STAND A L O N E P H O T O V O L T A I C S Y S T E M
After getting acquainted with the various components needed to install a photovoltaic system,
the next important step is to determine the size of all such components for a given power load.
So, the system sizing is the process of determining the cheapest combination of array size and
storage capacity that will meet the load requirements with an acceptable level of security over the
expected lifetime of the installation.
Because solar radiation varies, and in many cases, the load demand cannot be predicted
accurately, sizing is necessarily an approximate calculation, based on probabilities. As a determi-
nation of a PV sizing calculation, let us take the hypothetical case of an off-grid farming house
situated in the Basilicata Region of southern Italy. The householder requires a stand alone
PV/battery system to provide power at 220 V a.c. for lighting, TV, VCR, radio, a vacuum cleaner,
an electric oven, a washing machine, an iron etc. with a security of supply of 95%. The proposed
system is shown schematically in Fig. 4.
12 V, 50 Wp ( + 10%) crystalline silicon type, is expected to be 25°C assuming open rack mounting.
So, the estimated maximum operating cell temperature is (32 + 2 5 ) = 57°C.
T I L T ANGLE
The selection of tilt angle plays a significant role so far as the sizing of a photovoltaic system
is concerned. For example, in the summer season, a tilt in the range of 20-60 ° does not significantly
affect the utility of the PV system in question. However, this does not seem to be correct in the
winter season with the maximum daily load demand but minimum solar radiation available. The
solar radiation data presented in Table 1 very clearly demonstrates the fact mentioned above. For
example, in the month of December, with a tilt of 60 °, there is a net increase of 10% in the solar
radiation availability when compared to a tilt of 30 ° that, in turn, increases the output delivered
by the PV system. It is because of this reason that, in the present case, we have selected a tilt of
60 ° facing due south.
Array size
For a d.c. bus voltage of 110 V,
Now, the next step is to determine the total cell area required to meet a mean daily load of
45 Ah/day during a day in the month of December with a mean solar radiation value of
3.07 kWh/day. As illustrated below, a very simple method has been used to design a system
that would be able to provide the load requested. It is to be noted that an average efficiency of
12% was assigned to the PV modules used in the present installation, while doing the above
calculation.
Battery sizing
The sizing of a battery system, i.e. the capacity of a battery system required to meet the load
demand of 180 Ah during four consecutive days periods with no contribution from the PV
installation, can be calculated as follows:
Battery capacity required = 180/0.8 x 0.9 Ah = 250Ah.
Now, if we select a lead acid battery of 100 Ah and a nominal voltage of 12V, the number of
batteries that can provide the above load can be calculated as:
No. of batteries in a series string = 110/12 = 9.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that, to provide a necessary load, a photo-
voltaic/battery system with the following characteristics is required, i.e.
Economics is one of the primary constraints that need to be examined very closely for PV
technology to reach its full potential. Many criteria exist which can be chosen as an economic
criterion for optimization of a solar installation. In the present section on life cycle cost analysis
of the PV installation described above, the concept of minimum cost for the output delivered during
the lifetime of the system has been considered.
The net cost of useful energy delivered by the system depends upon the initial capital investment,
the lifetime of the system, maintenance cost, salvage value, interest rate etc. Using the guidelines
provided both by Sharma et al. and Treble, an attempt has been made to estimate the cost of 1 kWh
of useful energy delivered by the PV installation.
The following assumptions have been considered while calculating the life cycle cost (presented
in Table 5) for the system under investigation.
It is evident from the calculation presented in Table 4 that, over an average year, the system
would produce a good amount of surplus energy. So, rather than waste this surplus energy, the
householder could use it to run more appliances (e.g. for water heating purposes).
From the cost of 1 kWh of useful energy (Table 6) delivered by the system, it is very clear that
the system is handicapped by the economic consideration. It is, therefore, very important that, to
make the system more economical, further research work must be done to optimize the sizing of
the system with maximum possible utilization of the energy delivered by the system.
S M A L L TO M E D I U M CAPACITY P H O T O V O L T A I C S Y S T E M S I N S T A L L E D AT
ENEA R E S E A R C H C E N T R E , T R I S A I A
During the last few months, some prototype photovoltaic systems of small to medium capacity
have been installed at the unit for demonstration of solar energy devices, ENEA Research Centre,
Trisaia. The main objective of such installation is to get familiar, as well as to acquire practical
experience of working, with photovoltaic systems to be used later for the experimental set up of
a large capacity water desalination unit based on reverse osmosis technology. The electric input
for the distillation plant is planned to be provided by a photovoltaic unit of capacity 55 kW w To
achieve the objective, some photovoltaic systems have been installed, and the output is being used
for applications, such as water pumping, lighting purposes in the solar energy unit, running
centrifugal fans connected to the solar dryer etc. A brief description of the units mentioned above
will be given in the text to follow.
PHOTOVOLTAIC
FIELDOF 6 KWp
[ENEL
r
I
I
STORAGE J LO~~D
BATTERY
Fig. 6. General sketch of 6 KWp photovoltaicsystem.
The inverter and the batteries system have been systemized in a separate box with a photovoltaic
system installed on the roof that provides the necessary input energy for lighting, running a
refrigerator and a TV set etc. In order to supply the power generated from the 6 kWp system for
the lighting system in the office building, a connection was made between the inverter and the
general switching board of the office, making use of a bipolar electric cable. To guarantee the power
supply, a relay system has been realized in such a way that, in case of power failure from the
inverter, it automatically switches over to the ENEL electric network. On the other hand, as soon
as the power supply from the inverter is sufficient, the relay system once again switches over from
the E N E L network to the inverter. The power supply from the batteries is drawn only when the
cell voltage in a battery is more than 1.7 V.
PHOTOVOLTAIC
FIELDOF 350 Wp
PLASTICPIPE
~ ELECTRICALALIMENTA'nON
PLASTICPIPE~ ! -
STORAGETANK
PUMP
CREPUSCULAR
SWITCH
I
CHARGE I
CONTROL
i B.EC'I'I:IIG
I STORAGE
BA) b.HY
m
BULB
r
\ -- - VE.TUTO. "..Y,.G
I... ce,,
l co" roR J
Fig. 9. General sketch and view of PV system to be used for solar assisted dryer.
SHARMA et al.: A PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM FOR DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS 173
of connections from the PV system to the main E N E L electric network, the operation of the system
can be made continuous.
The need for a transitory energy supply for a large number of non-electrified, isolated
rural communities has long been recognized. One solution may be the utilization of photovoltaic
cells or high temperature solar thermal energy conversion schemes. To appreciate fully the real
potential of photovoltaic technology as a means of rural advancement, it is necessary to consider
a number of parameters, including national policies, institutional factors and the schemes relating
to the supply of fuel and other commodities. Problems in the area of technology, economics and
management of PV systems need to be solved to bring about a successful and rapid implementation
of PV technology in developing countries. Keeping in view the facts mentioned above, some areas
of research that would contribute to the successful dissemination of this technology in developing
countries are suggested in the present section.
The major obstacle reducing the diffusion of PV technology is a financial one. A vast majority
of the rural households in developing countries cannot afford the technology in question because
of its cost. Apart from local financial problems, the reduction of research money in several
countries, as well as the continuously decreasing oil price since 1985, are other financial restrictions.
With the decreasing oil price, the pay back period for the PV power plant increases significantly,
thus making the system less competitive with conventional systems.
Keeping in view the facts mentioned above, research efforts that will contribute to lowering the
cost of industrial, family-sized or community-sized power plants should be continued. Development
and use of cheaper, durable and locally available materials for the construction of a power plant
should be an ongoing matter of investigation.
Apart from the above mentioned efforts at the research level, an additional effort in the area
of social and economic studies to understand the dynamics of the rural community would be quite
useful for successful utilization of renewable energy resources. Residents must be willing to accept
the new technologies, and their participation in the planning, construction, and maintenance of the
system must be ensured.
CONCLUSION
For remote rural areas, without access to electrical energy from a central power grid (may
be due to technical or economic reasons), stand alone photovoltaic systems represent the only
hope of meeting basic electric needs. No doubt, solar power is technically feasible, and for
providing relatively small quantities of electricity in remote sites, PV is competitive on the basis
of overall costs with alternatives, such as small diesel generators. It is not yet competitive with
grid power. It is interesting to note that the solar array, the required energy storage and the
inverter, are the most important factors in the cost of a stand alone PV system. It is hoped that,
through further research efforts targeted to improve the performance of the above mentioned
factors, the research will make stand alone photovoltaic systems more economical and energy
efficient.
Acknowledgement--One of the authors (V. K. Sharma) would like to express his sincere thanks to Professor G. Furlan,
Head, ICTP Programme of Training and Research in Italian Laboratoriesfor providing financial help and moral support
to complete this work.
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