MEC5888 – Assignment 1

Design Stand Alone Power Supply Systems for a House in Off-Grid Area

Assume you are a consultant engineer and a client approached you to size and
select a complete fixed angle PV system for their 4-bedroom house located in a
remote land with no access to grid power or any other means of solar and
renewable energy resources. The client also wants to know how much this
installation costs and how long they have to wait to start saving money (simple
payback period).

The house is already audited and retrofitted with energy-efficient AC lighting and
electrical appliances and water conservative features, as per client’s information
provided. The hot water is supplied by an already installed solar boosted heat
pump. No backup gas or diesel generator set (Genset) is to be used.

a) Nominate an appropriate location for such a house with good on-site solar
energy source for harnessing power. You are free to chose somewhere in
Australia or an overseas location.
b) Check out local Council’s relevant regulations and restrictions to be
comply with.
c) List all typical AC electric users in the house and their time of use and
estimate a 24-hour AC demand (kW) profile for the worst month of the year
and calculate its required AC Consumption (kWh).
d) Find the average or base load and the peaks, then superimpose the daily
variation in insolation profile onto demand profile and define some strategies
for generating and storing electricity from the sun. (For remote application
(not for grid-connected area), the PV array size is designed based on the
worst monthly average of solar energy.)
e) Decide on how many PV modules will be needed in series (strings) and how
many in parallel to give you the required combined (array or poly-string)
power.
f) Note that the proposed PV system should include sizing the PV modules
(Watts), 24 volts battery storage configuration (Ah) consisting of 2 Volts
cells, DC charge controller (A) with MPPT, and AC Coupled inverter (kW)
etc.
g) What will be the size and dollar investment savings of the PV system if only
DC lighting and DC appliances are used (no AC usage)?

Summarise your findings in a brief report including:

1. Aims of the consultancy project and deliverables

2. Introduction to house structure and appliances
3. Site climatological weather data included annual-daily solar radiation
intensity, ambient temperature, wind velocity
4. Appropriate energy technology solution applied
5. Assumptions made to simplify the design complexity
 6. Design calculations, sizing and selection of PV systems and equipment
proposed for implementation for (a) and (b) considering the annual and
daily consumptions (kWh) and demand profiles (kW) and storage
capability. Include brochures for PV panel and its accessories in
Appendix.
7. Economic analysis and feasibility studies included life cycle costing and
pay pack periods for (a) and (b)
8. Discussion of outcomes and analysis of errors
9. Further recommendations and practical suggestions for future works

https://solargis.com/maps-and-gis-data/download/world/

Life Cycle Costing of PV Generation System

https://www.slideshare.net/Huzaifasajids/life-cycle-cost-example

http://www.journal-
aprie.com/article_54724_4e5a256ff89a93cd0a5b12c5116c96f3.pdf

Guide to Installing Solar panels

https://www.solarchoice.net.au/wp-content/uploads/Solar-Choice-Clean-Energy-
Council-Solar-PV-Consumer-guide.pdf

https://www.solaraccreditation.com.au/consumers/purchasing-your-solar-pv-
system/solar-pv-guide-for-households.html