Project Report

Off-Grid Solar PV
System Design for a
Home

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Class Project Submission

Submitted By: Unzillah Adan Shahid

Roll No: EE19-014

Submitted To: Dr. Abdul khaliq

Course: Renewable Energy

Deadline:

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Introduction

Solar PV Systems
Solar PV systems are essentially any combination of solar panels, the hardware needed
to help the energy flow through the panels, and inverters. Depending on the type of
system they can utilize string inverters, micro inverters, or power optimizers to convert
the energy, but the basic makeup of most PV systems is the same. Solar PV panels
provide a very good alternative.
The greatest advantage of solar power is its versatile availability and abundance all over
the earth. But solar energy is scattered in nature which means more area is required for
installation. As the area increases, installation cost also increases. Solar energy usage
can reduce our dependence on fossil fuel and reduce carbon emission. It can turn our
energy consuming home to producing one.

Components of Solar PV system

Photovoltaic systems generally consist of six individual components: the solar PV array,
a charge controller, a battery bank, an inverter, a utility meter, and an electric grid. The
correct installation of all of these components determines how efficient the solar panels
are:

Component 1:
Solar Photovoltaic Array: A solar photovoltaic array consists of a number of solar PV
panels that are electrically connected. The solar PV array generates DC electricity from
sunlight. Thanks to the flexibility of modular photovoltaic arrays, PV systems offer many
different designs and a wide variety of electrical needs, regardless of how large or small
the installation surface is.
It is important to keep in mind that photovoltaic systems must be installed on stable
mounting structures that can support the array and withstand weather conditions like
wind, rain, and corrosion for the next few decades.

Component 2:
Charge Controller: Charge controllers regulate the DC from the solar panels to make
sure that the batteries don’t overcharge. A charge controller can measure whether the
batteries are fully charged, and can stop the current from flowing in order to prevent
the batteries from permanent damage. Charge controllers can be divided into two
types: Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT).

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The PWN is a standard type and is suitable for smaller photovoltaic systems and battery
banks, as they vary between 4 and 60 amperes.
On the other hand, the MPPT charge controllers are more suitable for photovoltaic
systems with a high voltage of — in most cases — up to 160 volts DC. Since not every
photovoltaic system has a solar battery bank, it is not always necessary to include a
charge controller into your system. In other words, you only need a charge controller if
you have a battery bank. Additionally, from a more technical aspect, you might not need
a charge controller if your PV array puts out about 2 watts or less for each 50 battery
ampere hours.

Fig 1: Components of PV system

Component 3:
Battery Bank: A battery bank makes sure that none of your unused energy goes to
waste, as it stores the energy that is being produced by the PV array and is not
consumed immediately. It can then, for example, supply your home with electricity
during the night or during very cloudy weather when there is insufficient sunlight.
Including a battery bank in your photovoltaic systems is optional, but it can double the
amount of solar energy you can use.

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With a battery system, your home will be able to use 80% of its generated energy,
whereas without a battery system, this would only be 40%.

Component 4:
Inverter: A solar inverter or photovoltaic (PV) inverter is a type of power inverter which
converts the variable direct current (DC) output of a photovoltaic solar panel into a
utility frequency alternating current (AC) that can be fed into a commercial electrical
grid or used by a local, off-grid electrical network.
Solar inverters may be classified into four broad types:

1. Stand-alone inverters, used in stand-alone power systems where the inverter

draws its DC energy from batteries charged by photovoltaic arrays. Many stand-
alone inverters also incorporate integral battery chargers to replenish the
battery from an AC source when available. Normally these do not interface in
any way with the utility grid, and as such are not required to have anti-islanding
protection.
2. Grid-tie inverters, which match phase with a utility-supplied sine wave. Grid-tie
inverters are designed to shut down automatically upon loss of utility supply, for
safety reasons. They do not provide backup power during utility outages.
3. Battery backup inverters are special inverters which are designed to draw
energy from a battery, manage the battery charge via an onboard charger, and
export excess energy to the utility grid. These inverters are capable of supplying
AC energy to selected loads during a utility outage, and are required to have
anti-islanding protection.
4. Intelligent hybrid inverters manage photovoltaic array, battery storage and
utility grid, which are all coupled directly to the unit. These modern all-in-one
systems are usually highly versatile and can be used for grid-tie, stand-alone or
backup applications but their primary function is self-consumption with the use
of storage.

Component 5:
Utility Meter: Regardless of your solar PV system, your household has a power meter
that measures the electricity consumption per house or apartment. The utility meter is
connected to the PV system and measures how much electricity you are using in your
home. The electricity that you have generated from the photovoltaic panels that and is
not stored or used will be fed back into the electric grid.

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Component 6:
Electric Grid: Only a few homes in the UK are living off the grid. Although renewable
technologies make living off-grid possible using solar battery solutions, most
homeowners might still opt for a combination of solar- and grid-based electricity. If your
home is connected to an electric grid, the extra power that is generated once your

battery bank is full will be sent to the grid. There are 3 main different types of grids tied
solar inverters:
Fig 1.1: Types of Inverter

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Process Flow & SRA

Process for PV Design

A photovoltaic system converts the sun's radiation, in the form of light, into usable
electricity. It comprises the solar array and the balance of system components (BOS).
This chapter details about process flow of electricity generation and several types of
components used in it.
How Does System Works?

Process of Electricity Generation:

The main steps for how solar PV power plant works are listed below:
1. Photovoltaic cells absorb the sun’s energy and convert it to DC electricity.
2. The solar inverter converts DC electricity from your solar modules to AC electricity,
which is used by most home appliances.
3. Electricity flows through your home, powering electronic devices.
4. Excess electricity produced by solar panels is fed to the electric grid.

Fig 1.2: Process Flow of Solar PV Power Plant

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Step: 1 Photovoltaic effect: The science of generating electricity with solar panels boils
down to the photovoltaic effect. It was first discovered in 1839 by Edmond Becquerel
and can be generally thought of as a characteristic of certain materials (known as
semiconductors) that allows them to generate an electric current when exposed to
sunlight. The photovoltaic process works through the following simplified steps:
1. The silicon photovoltaic solar cell absorbs solar radiation.
2. When the sun’s rays interact with the silicon cell, electrons begin to move, creating a
flow of electric current
Step: 2 DC to AC conversion: The output of photovoltaic cells (solar cells) is in DC energy
form so it is necessary to convert it into AC energy, which is done by means of a single
component popularly known as solar inverters.
A solar inverter takes the DC electricity from the solar array and uses that to create AC
electricity. Inverters are like the brains of the system. Along with inverting DC to AC
power, they also provide ground fault protection and system stats, including voltage and
current on AC and DC circuits, energy production and maximum power point tracking.
Step: 3 Electrical energy storage: Because no power is provided during the hours of
darkness, the stand alone systems must generate and store sufficient energy during the
day to satisfy the peak daily load. The storage should also be sufficient to cover several
days when no sunlight is available.
Batteries are normally used as a buffer to provide the necessary storage to guarantee
short term continuity of supply by storing surplus energy during the day for use during
the night and during periods of overcast skies.
Step: 4 Excess energy production: A typical grid-tied PV system, during peak daylight
hours, frequently produces more energy than one customer needs, so that excess
energy is fed back into the grid for use elsewhere.
The customer gets credit for the excess energy produced, and can use that credit to
draw from the conventional grid at night or on cloudy days. A net meter records the
energy sent compared to the energy received from the grid.

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The block diagram shown below represents the conclusive and detailed process flow of
solar PV power plant.

Fig 1.3: Block Diagram of Solar PV Power Generation

Solar Resource Assessment

Solar Resource Assessment (SRA) refers to the analysis of a prospective solar energy
production site with the end goal being an accurate estimate of that facility’s annual
energy production (AEP).
As the designer, manufacturer, and provider of equipment used to conduct
measurement campaigns in support of that goal, we at NRG often use the term “SRA” in
reference to site-specific measurement. That is, the systematic collection of “ground
truth” meteorological data for the purpose of lowering the uncertainty of the AEP
estimate.

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Methodology of SRA
There are various tools / models to assess solar resource, for simplicity they can be
classified into 2 broad categories:
1) Ground mounted measuring instruments
2) Satellite derived data

Ground Mounted Measuring Instruments

In the first method, i.e., Ground mounted measurements, instruments such as
pyranometers or pyrheliometers are used for measurement of solar irradiation and
other meteorological data.

Fig 1.4: Pyranometer Tool

Satellite Derived Data

One of the sources for satellite derived data is Solar GIS, which uses statistically
aggregated solar and temperature data stored in the database with a time step of 15/30
minutes. Solar radiation is calculated from IODC satellite data covering a period from
1999 to 2011.

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Solar GIS database has been independently identified as the most reliable irradiation
database on multiple occasion.

Fig 1.5: Photovoltaic Power Potential for Pakistan

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PV Calculations

Problem Statement
Design an off-grid solar PV System for your house based on your annual energy
consumption according to your electricity bill.

Electricity Bill of the Home

You are required to estimate the following

1) Total PV load
2) Number of modules required to serve this load
3) Select an appropriate size inverter
4) Design a PV array by selecting number of modules per string and number of strings
per array according to the voltage and current ratings of selected inverter
5) Design a battery bank having backup time of 4 hours
6) Perform the cost estimation by selecting the equipment available in the market

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