School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy

Engineering

SOLA2540 Applied Photovoltaics

SOLA9001 Photovoltaics

Stand Alone PV System Design

Huddle requirements: You must demonstrate a satisfactory performance on this assessment. A minimum mark of 60% must be obtained this assessment in order to pass the course. You may re-submit the final report until a satisfactory performance is achieved. Your total mark for this assessment will be capped at 60% for the re-submitted work.

1. Overview:

The aim of this assignment is to provide stand-alone photovoltaic system design experience. You will design PV system for a given project using the design principles and procedures you have learned in this course.

This  activity  is  linked  to  the  course  learning  outcomes  LO2  to  LO6  and  addresses  these Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competency Standard for  Professional  Engineer: PE1.3, PE1.5, PE2.1, PE2.2, PE2.3, PE3.2, PE3.3 and PE3.6.

2. Project description:

Consider you are a part of the design team in a reputed PV system design and installation company.  You have been  tasked to design a stand-alone PV system to address specific requirements of a customer. You can find your project based on your zID and weather data of the project location on the course Moodle site.

The task includes:

• Development of  PV system design  program  based on  MS Excel. The program should be able to perform. at least the following tasks:

o calculate average daily Wh and Ah load for the given load specification;

o calculate the battery size for the given days of autonomy;

o calculate solar insolation (direct and diffuse) on the PV module at a given tilt angle;

o calculate the energy generated by the PV array each day;

o calculate the battery state of charge at the end of each day;

o has ability to optimise tilt angle and PV array size; and

o sizing and selection of other components such as charge controller and inverter as necessary.

• Design  of PV  system:  Using the Excel program that you have developed, design a PV system.  You should design for two scenarios:  (i)  Rooftop installation of PV array considering roof tilt and orientation (assume there is sufficient roof space), (ii) Ground mounted system with optimum tilt angle and orientation for PV array.

• Sizing and selection PV system components: Size and select suitable PV components such as modules, battery, battery charge controller and inverter. Provide justification for your selections  (for  example  on  the  basis  of  cost,  reliability,  availability,   maintenance requirements) and give at least two other alternatives. Note: different combinations of battery and PV sizes may satisfy the design requirements.

• Drawing system layout: Select appropriate cable size (AS/NZS 3000) and draw line diagram (AS/NZS 5033).

• Pricing the system: Price the total cost of the system including the cost of the components you will use, cost of installation and your company’s margin (20%). Use local labour rate to estimate installation cost. Ignore the cost of the real estate.

• Financial analysis: Calculate payback period and levelised cost of energy (LCOE). Compare the LOCE with the cost of electricity from diesel generator.

3. Assessment:

o Deliverable 1: Preliminary design report (15%): This document should demonstrate the evidence of progress made on the  execution of the project.  It should include  current version of your MS Excel PV system design program which has to be functional but not necessarily complete and polished at this stage. The report must maximum 4 A4 pages long (any pages beyond this page limit will not be marked).  Imagine that  you  are presenting this report to the client and/ or manager, so it has to be clear and concise. [See Appendix A for marking criteria]

o Deliverable 2: PV system design presentation (30%): The presentation should demonstrate detail  PV system design. This should include complete PV system design including load analysis, component sizing and selection and economic analysis. You should also have Excel PV system design program ready for demonstration. The presentation will be 10-15 minutes. [See Appendix B for marking criteria]

o Deliverable 3: PV system design report (55%): The final report should report detail PV system design including economic  analysis.  It  should  include  load  analysis,  sizing and selection of system components, system layout and economic analysis. You should also submit the final version of the Excel  PV system design program. The report must be a maximum of 12 A4 pages long (excluding references). You can attach technical details such as datasheet of PV components as appendices. These will not be counted towards the above page limit.  [See Appendix C for marking criteria]

o Deliverable 4: Reflection (Satisfactory): You should reflect on the project and what you did, what you have learned about Stand Alone PV system design while completing this project and how you are going to be able to use it in the future. It should be clear and concise. It should be a maximum of 2 A4 pages long. You must demonstrate satisfactory performance (50% or above). [See Appendix D for marking criteria]

4. Resources:

Some useful resources are listed below however there are a lot of online resources available.

•   Weather data: Course Moodle site (“Weather data” folder)

•    LCC, LCOE: Course Moodle site, NREL LCOE calculator (https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/tech-lcoe.html).

• AS/NZS 4509.2:2010: Stand-alone power systems System design Standards Australia