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Feasibility of establishing solar photovoltaic power plants at existing wind

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Conference Paper · August 2017

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 Feasibility of Establishing Solar Photovoltaic Power
Plants at Existing Wind Farms
Monika Agrawal1,a, Bharat Kumar Saxena1,b, K.V.S. Rao1,c
1
Department of Renewable Energy
Rajasthan Technical University
Kota, India
a
moneagr@gmail.com, bbkumarsin@gmail.com, ckvsrao12@gmail.com
Abstract—In wind farms, there are various configurations for
micrositing the wind turbines. The goals of these configurations are
to reduce wake effect losses and enhance the performance of wind
turbines. The vacant land between the turbines has enormous
potential for solar energy generation using photovoltaic modules. In
this paper, a wind farm of 25 MW at Soda site in Jaisalmer,
Rajasthan state in India is chosen and is analyzed for the possibility
of establishing solar photovoltaic power plant by considering the
location of wind turbines according to four configurations of
3D×5D, 3D×10D, 4D×8D, and 5D×7D (D is rotor diameter). The
wind energy potential is calculated by using RETScreen Expert
software. The solar energy potential of wind farm is calculated by
using PVsyst software for four configurations of the wind farm. Six
cases are considered for covering the vacant land in wind farm by
assuming that 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% of wind farm
area is covered by photovoltaic modules. The results show that the
contribution of solar photovoltaic power plant generated energy in
the combined wind and solar system is greater than 50% for most
of the cases. The share of solar energy of total electricity produced
in the solar-wind farm is maximum at 82.1% for 5D×7D
configuration of wind farm layout and utilizing 30% of farm area
for solar power production. The performance ratio of solar
photovoltaic power plant varies in the range from 75% to 79% for
different cases.
Keywords—Performance ratio; PVsyst; RETScreen Expert; solar
energy; wind solar power plant.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electricity production by using renewable energy sources is
increased many folds in the last decade. Among the different
sustainable renewable energy sources, wind power is an attractive
source of energy. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
(MNRE) of Government of India has set a target of renewable
power capacity of 175 GW to be achieved by year 2022. As per
MNRE, total installed capacity of grid connected wind power
plants at the end of April 2017 in India was 32,287.27 MW [1].
The performance of a wind power plant depends on designing
of wind farm layout. Wind turbines while generating electricity,
also induces wake effect in downstream. The wind turbines
extract kinetic energy from wind and therefore a turbulence is
978-1-5386-0569-1$31.00 2017
c IEEE
formed in downstream direction of the turbine. This effect is
called wake effect.
The energy generation performance of downstream wind
turbines is changed due to this wake effect. Wind recovers the
free stream profile after some distance. So, for efficient
performance of each turbine in a wind farm, a specific distance
between the turbines is required. The spacing between turbines is
unutilized in spite of having energy potential. In most high wind
power density sites of Rajasthan, the solar power potential is also
equally large [2], [3]. Thus, this paper analyzes the possibility of
establishing solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plants at existing
wind farm sites.
In this paper, Section II discussed about different
configurations of wind farm layout. Section III and Section IV
explains the grid connected solar photovoltaic power plant and
combination of solar wind power plants respectively. In Section
V, the performance of solar photovoltaic power plant and energy
production of solar–wind power plants are calculated using
PVsyst and RETScreen Expert softwares respectively.
Conclusions of this paper are presented in the Section VI.
II. DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS OF WIND FARM LAYOUT
To mitigate the wake effect losses, an optimal distribution of
wind turbines in a wind farm is necessary. Micrositing of wind
turbines in a wind farm is done by using different configurations
like 3D×5D, 3D×10D, 4D×8D, and 5D×7D, for improving their
performance and minimizing the wake effect losses. Here D
represents the diameter of wind turbine rotor. Fig. 1 shows the
layout of a wind farm in which eight turbines are placed into a
configuration. The wind farm layout is defined in terms of wind
turbine spacing in downwind direction and crosswind direction
with reference to predominant wind direction of wind farm.
As per National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) guidelines
for micrositing of wind farm, wind farm developer should install
wind turbines by leaving some distance from the project
boundary. Developer should leave 2D space in normal to
predominant wind direction and 3D space in the predominant
wind direction [4].
251
 Fig. 1. Wind farm array.

In Fig. 1, Dd and Dc represents the distance between wind

turbines in downstream wind direction and in crosswind direction
respectively.
Fig. 2. Layout diagram of a grid connected solar PV system.

III. SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PLANT

According to MNRE, total installed capacity of grid
connected solar photovoltaic power plants in India at the end of
April 2017 was 12,504.50 MWp [1]. A grid connected solar PV
system has solar modules, inverter, power conditioning unit, and
grid connecting equipment [5]. Various researchers have
analyzed the performance of grid connected solar PV power
plants [6]–[8]. Fig. 2 shows the simple layout diagram of grid
connected solar PV system. As discussed in previous sections
above, in wind farms a large amount of land remains unutilized.
This free space can be used for electricity generation by installing
solar PV system.

IV. COMBINATION OF SOLAR AND WIND POWER PLANTS

An additional energy can be generated at wind farm site by
implementing solar PV power plants in unutilized land. Due to
non-linear behavior of wind speed, wind energy conversion
system is not effective in supplying a constant load demand [9].
This intermittent nature of wind energy systems can be reduced
by adding solar energy systems with them. Fig. 3 shows a simple
schematic diagram of combination of solar and wind energy
system in a wind farm.
Combined (solar-wind) energy systems have following
advantages: a) By utilization of common resources, cost of
project can be saved; b) Typically, wind speed is high at night
time and early morning, and solar radiation is more during day
time. This means, both system’s peak time of power generation is
different and hence an improved power generation can be
obtained; c) By better utilization of free space around wind
turbines through installation of solar panel, additional land
requirement for solar park can be reduced; d) Same grid can be
used for both solar and wind energy systems [10].
Fig. 3. Combination of solar and wind energy systems in a wind farm.
V. ANALYSIS OF ENERGY PRODUCTION
A. Site Description
In the Thar desert region of western Rajasthan, a wind farm
of 25 MW is located at Soda site in Jaisalmer district. The project
geographical location is 26°38’54.3” N and 70°51’12.2” E. In
Jaisalmer, rainfall is very low. May and June are hottest, and
January is the coldest month. Twenty wind turbines having 1.25
MW capacity of Suzlon-S66 are installed in Soda wind farm
[11]. Fig. 4 shows the geographical terrain [12] and Table I
shows the global incident solar irradiation on solar photovoltaic
array plane tilted at an angle of 27° and wind velocity parameters
of Soda site. Global solar irradiance data are taken from PVsyst
through Meteonorm 7.1 database and wind velocity data at 65 m
height is taken from the research paper [11].

252 2017 International Conference On Smart Technology for Smart Nation

 Yf
PR = (2)
Yr
where Yf is the final yield of system and Yr is the reference yield
that can be calculated by using (3) and (4) respectively as shown
below:
Egrid
Yf = (3)
Po
where Egrid is the energy injected into grid in kWh and Po is the
nominal power at Standard Test Conditions (STC) in kWp.
Fig. 4. Geographical terrain of Soda site [12]. Ginc
Yr = (4)
Go
TABLE I. METEOROLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF THE SODA SITE
where Ginc is the global solar irradiation on inclined array plane
Months Global incident solar Wind velocity at in kWh/m2 and Go is global irradiance at STC, which is 1 kW/m2.
irradiation on PV array 65 m height (m/s)
plane (kWh/m2) The study is carried out by taking area of solar panels as 5%,
Jan 182.0 4.6 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% of the available area for above
Feb 190.5 5.1 discussed four configurations. Energy production and
Mar 198.4 5.5 performance ratio of solar PV power plant are calculated from
Apr 210.5 5.6 PVsyst software and energy production of wind turbines is
May 204.4 8.4 calculated from RETScreen Expert software. Table II reflects the
Jun 177.7 9.1
monthly energy production of the wind farm and solar panels for
168.5 7.3
5% area of 3D×5D configuration. The performance ratio of solar
Jul
PV power plant is shown in Table III for 3D×5D configuration
Aug 165.8 5.9
with covering 5% of total available area. In this case, solar PV
Sep 185.6 6.0 power plant of 7.4 MWp capacity can be installed.
Oct 174.8 4.6
Nov 180.1 3.6
TABLE II. ENERGY GENERATION BY COVERING 5% OF AVAILABLE AREA
Dec 167.6 4.5 IN 3D×5D CONFIGURATION
Annual 2205.9 5.85
Months Wind Energy SPV Energy Combined
B. Methodology Generation Generation (SPV + Wind)
Estimated using Estimated Energy
1) Area calculation RETScreen Expert using PVsyst Generation
The area for installing the solar panels in free space between (MWh) (MWh) (MWh)
wind turbines, is calculated by using (1): Jan 2197.22 1111 3308.22

§ π ( D + H )2 · Feb 2572.42 1115 3687.42

A = ( xD × yD ) − ¨ ¸ (1) Mar 3386.87 1131 4517.87
¨ 4 ¸
© ¹ Apr 3360.02 1165 4525.02
where A is the available area for solar modules as per wind May 7340.91 1119 8459.91
turbine, D is the wind turbine rotor diameter, and H is the hub Jun 7864.55 992 8856.55
height of wind turbine. xD×yD represents the wind farm layout
Jul 5904.56 952 6856.56
configuration. In this study, four configurations as 3D×5D,
3D×10D, 4D×8D, and 5D×7D are taken. The area of Aug 3888.18 946 4834.18
π ( D + H ) 4 is reduced for neglecting the shadow effect of
2
Sep 3922.72 1046 4968.72
wind turbine on solar panels. Oct 2099.85 993 3092.85
Nov 1000.83 1051 2051.83
2) Performance Ratio (PR)
Performance ratio is a key parameter for analyzing the solar Dec 2053.72 1017 3070.72
PV power plant performance. PR of the solar PV plant is strongly Annual 45591.85 12638 58229.85
dependent on weather conditions. This parameter is also useful in
fault detection [13], [14]. PR can be calculated by (2):

2017 International Conference On Smart Technology for Smart Nation 253

TABLE III. PERFORMANCE OF THE SOLAR PV POWER PLANT BY COVERING Calculations similar to as shown in Table II and Table III for
5% AREA OF 3D×5D CONFIGURATION ESTIMATED USING PVSYST
energy production and PR for solar PV power plants are done for
DC AC other configurations with different percentage of total available
Energy Energy Reference Final Yield Monthly area for solar modules.
of to Grid Yield
Months Solar [Egrid] [Yr] [Yf] PR
Array C. Results and discussion
[Ea] (MWh) (kWh/kWp) (kWh/kWp) (%) The annual combined energy production from solar and wind
(MWh)
plants for all cases are shown in Table IV. Table V shows the
Jan 1149 1111 182.0 149.77 82.29
performance ratio and installed capacity of solar PV plant for
Feb 1154 1115 190.5 150.31 78.90 different configuration by taking the cases of available area like
Mar 1172 1131 198.4 152.47 76.84 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30%. The existing 25 MW wind
Apr 1206 1165 210.5 157.05 74.60 farm at Soda site generates 45,592 MWh energy annually. By
May 1160 1119 204.4 150.85 73.80 using unutilized land for solar modules installations, an
Jun 1028 992 177.7 133.73 75.25
additional energy can be generated. Maximum energy is
generated in configuration 5D×7D, amongst all the cases. At
Jul 987 952 168.5 128.34 76.16
30% coverage of available area by SPV, combined energy
Aug 981 946 165.8 127.53 76.91 generation is 2,54,149 MWh and solar contribution in production
Sep 1083 1046 185.6 141.01 75.97 is 82.1%.
Oct 1028 993 174.8 133.86 76.57
It is observed from the Table V, that the PR value is changing
Nov 1088 1051 180.1 141.68 78.66 in the range of 75% to 79%. Monthly energy production from
Dec 1053 1017 167.6 137.09 81.79 standalone solar and wind power plants, and their combined
Annual 13089 12638 2205.9 1703.69 77.23 energy are shown in Figs. 5–8 for different configurations.

TABLE IV. ANNUAL COMBINED ENERGY PRODUCTION AND CONTRIBUTION OF SOLAR PV ENERGY GENERATION

SPV Energy Generation as

Area covered Combined (SPV + Wind) Energy Generation
Percentage of Combined Energy
by solar (MWh)
(%)
panels
(%) 3D×5D 3D×10D 4D×8D 5D×7D 3D×5D 3D×10D 4D×8D 5D×7D

5% 58230 74344 77007 80272 21.7 38.6 40.8 43.2

10% 70878 103086 108453 115109 35.7 55.7 57.9 60.4
15% 83360 131833 140062 149870 45.3 65.4 67.4 69.6
20% 95566 160580 171310 184625 52.3 71.6 73.4 75.3
25% 107863 189327 203043 219387 57.7 75.9 77.5 79.2
30% 119651 218078 234541 254149 61.9 79.1 80.6 82.1

TABLE V. INSTALLED POWER CAPACITY AND ANNUAL PERFORMANCE RATIO OF SOLAR PV PLANT

Area covered Installed Power Capacity of SPV Plant Annual Performance Ratio of SPV Plant
by solar (MWp) (%)
panels
(%) 3D×5D 3D×10D 4D×8D 5D×7D 3D×5D 3D×10D 4D×8D 5D×7D

5% 7.4 16.8 18.0 19.9 77.23 78.05 79.12 79.10

10% 14.8 33.5 36.0 39.7 77.24 77.80 79.09 79.18
15% 22.3 50.3 54.0 59.6 76.95 77.72 79.25 79.22
20% 29.7 67.1 72.1 79.5 76.33 77.82 79.1 79.28
25% 37.1 83.8 90.1 99.4 76.09 77.75 79.22 79.26
30% 44.5 100.6 108.1 119.3 75.45 77.72 79.24 79.25

254 2017 International Conference On Smart Technology for Smart Nation

 (a) (b)
Fig. 5. 3D×5D configuration with different coverage area by solar modules. (a) Standalone SPV and wind energy. (b) Combined energy generation.

(a) (b)
Fig. 6. 3D×10D configuration with different coverage area by solar modules. (a) Standalone SPV and wind energy. (b) Combined energy generation.

(a) (b)
Fig. 7. 4D×8D configuration with different coverage area by solar modules. (a) Standalone SPV and wind energy. (b) Combined energy generation.

2017 International Conference On Smart Technology for Smart Nation 255

 (a)
Fig. 8. 5D×7D configuration with different coverage area by solar modules. (a) Standalone SPV and wind energy. (b) Combined energy generation.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The main consideration of this study is the proper
utilization of land occupied by wind farm through additional
energy generation by SPV plant. In wind farms, a large amount
of land remains unused. By implementing solar photovoltaic
power plant in the existing wind farm, an additional energy can
be harnessed and also the issue related to intermittent nature of
wind energy systems can be resolved to some extent.
Expenditure on addition grid lines for SPV power plant is also
reduced. In this paper, solar potential in an existing wind farm
is calculated by using PVsyst software. The annual wind
energy generation for the Soda site is 45,592 MWh. The SPV
power plant capacity is found to be less than 25 MWp for all
the four configurations chosen, when the solar modules are
installed in 5% of the available area. For 3D×5D configuration,
the SPV energy generation contribution is less than 50% for
the first three cases (5%, 10%, 15%) chosen. Maximum
contribution of SPV energy of 82.1% of total energy generated
is estimated for 5D×7D configuration with 30% of available
area SPV installation. The vacant land between the wind
turbines has enormous potential for SPV energy generation as,
the contribution of SPV energy for the combined system is
greater than 50% for most of the cases. A small percentage of
vacant land between turbines can generate solar power in
megawatt levels. The performance ratio of solar PV plant is
varying in the range of 75% to 79% for different cases at the
site. For configurations 4D×8D and 5D×7D, the annual
performance ratio value of SPV plant is 79% for all the cases.
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256 2017 International Conference On Smart Technology for Smart Nation
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