Optimal sizing of grid-connected photovoltaic energy system in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

a b s t r a c tResource optimization is a major factor in the assessment of the effectiveness of renewable energy systems. Various methods have been utilized by different researchers in planning and sizing the gridconnected PV systems. This paper analyzes the optimal photovoltaic (PV) array and inverter sizes for a grid-connected PV system. Unmet load, excess electricity, fraction of renewable electricity, net present cost (NPC) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions percentage are considered in order to obtain optimal sizing of the grid-connected PV system. An optimum result, with unmet load and excess electricity of 0%, for serving electricity in Makkah, Saudi Arabia is achieved with the PV inverter size ratio of R ¼ 1 with minimized CO 2 emissions. However, inverter size can be downsized to 68% of the PV nominal power to reduce the inverter cost, and hence decrease the total NPC of the system.

The Economic Feasibility of Residential Energy Storage Combined with PV Panels: The Role of Subsidies in Italy

“…A review on this last topic defines as solar PV gets a 20 to 25 years lifespan [34] and the scenario with a time duration of 20 years is basically less profitable than one in 25 years when considering the low operative cost [35,36]. The choice of 20 years is considered more suitable in several works [3,37,38]. The cost opportunity of capital measure the return coming from an alternative project similar, in terms of risk level, to the considered one.…”

An Environmentally-Friendly Tourist Village in Egypt Based on a Hybrid Renewable Energy System––Part One: What Is the Optimum City?

“…This feature results from the ability of HRES to take the advantage of the complementary diurnal (night/day) and seasonal characteristics of the available renewable energy resources at a given site [18,42]. Figure 7a-d shows the different configurations of a hybrid renewable energy power system (PV/wind/diesel/battery, PV/diesel/battery, wind/diesel/battery and diesel/battery), for this study, among which the optimum city (Luxor, Giza, Alexandria, Qena or Aswan) is to be selected to establish an environment-friendly tourist village for each configuration based on the economic cost (COE and NPC) and the amount of GHG emitted for the same user inputs of the load, components costs, and components technical details.…”

“…Since the use of renewable energy offers environmental benefits in the form of CO2 pollution reduction, combining several renewable energy sources to form hybrid systems, whether off-grid or grid-connected systems, can provide more benefits by reducing CO2 emissions and providing a reliable supply of electricity in all load conditions [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. In addition, the use of renewable energy sources in remote locations could help reduce the operational cost through the reduction of fuel consumption, increasing system efficiency, and reducing noise and emissions [19].…”

An Environmentally-Friendly Tourist Village in Egypt Based on a Hybrid Renewable Energy System––Part Two: A Net Zero Energy Tourist Village

“…Furthermore, it is an indicator that the optimum hybrid configuration system is the system, which combines PV with wind to make the best use of their operating characteristics and to obtain efficiencies higher than, which could have been obtained from a single power source. This feature results from the ability of HRES to take advantage of the complementary diurnal (night/day) and seasonal characteristics of the available renewable energy resources at a given site [42,43]. Figure 5 shows the optimum configuration model of hybrid PV/wind/diesel/battery system of the proposed tourist village in the study based on the user inputs of the load, components costs, components technical details, solar and wind resources availability.…”