Chapter 5

Solar Energy
Solar Designing and Installation
 What is Solar Energy ?

It is the radiation from the sun that is capable of:

i. Producing heat
ii. Causing chemical reactions
iii. Generating electricity
It is the largest source of energy received on earth, but its intensity on the earth’s
surface is quite low.
Solar energy is rapidly becoming the ultimate energy source because of its non-
polluting character and its inexhaustible supply which are in stark contrast to
such fossil fuel source as coal, oil, and natural gas.
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The sunlight that reaches the ground consists of nearly 50% visible light, 45%
infrared radiation, and smaller amounts of ultraviolet light and other forms of
electromagnetic radiation.

This radiation can be converted either in to thermal energy or electrical energy.

Two main devices are used to capture solar energy and convert it into thermal
energy.
a. Flat-plate collectors
b. Concentrating collectors
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The flat plate collectors are used for hot water heating and house heating.

Concentrating collectors are used when higher temperature are needed. That is,
where they reflect and concentrate sunlight from a wide area.

Solar energy can be converted to electricity using photovoltaic cells/solar cells.

This converted energy is used to provide electricity for watches, calculators and
cameras.

Unfortunately, though solar energy is free, the high cost of its collection,
conversion and storage has limited its exploitation.
 Generation of Solar Energy

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly

using photovoltaic (pv), or indirectly using concentrated solar power(csp).

Photovoltaic converts like into electric current using photovoltaic effect.

Solar energy can be stored at high temperature using molten salts.

Salts are an effective storage medium because they are low cost, have high
specific heat capacity and can deliver heat at temperatures compatible with
conventional power systems.
 Solar cell

A solar cell (photovoltaic cell) is a solid state device that converts the energy
of sunlight directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect.

Assemblies of cells are used to make solar modules, also known as solar
panels. The energy generated from these solar modules referred to as solar
power, is an example of solar energy.

Cells are described as photovoltaic cells when light source is not necessary
sunlight. These are used for detecting light or other electromagnetic radiation
near the visible range. For example infrared detectors or measurement of light.
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 Working principle
Sunlight hit the solar panel (photovoltaic) and absorbed by semi-conducting
materials such as silicone.
Electrons are knocked loose from their atoms, which allow them to flow
through the material to produce electricity. This process is called
photovoltaic (pv) effect.
An array of solar panels converts solar energy into dc (direct current)
electricity. The dc electricity enters an inverter.
The inverter turns dc electricity into 120-volt ac (alternating current)
The ac power enters the utility panel in the house.
The electricity (load) is then distributed to appliances or light in the house.
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When more solar energy is generated it can be stored in a battery as dc
electricity and will continue to supply your home with electricity in the event
of power blackout or night time.
When the battery is full the excess electricity can be exported back into the
utility grid, if your system is connected to it.
Utility supplied electricity can also be drawn from the grid when not enough
solar energy is produced.
The flow of electricity in and out of the utility grid is measured by a utility
meter, which spins backwards (when you are producing more energy that you
need) and forward (when you require additional electricity from the utility
company). The two are offset ensuring that you only pay for the additional
energy you use from the utility company. This system is referred as “net
metering”.
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 Planning of a Standalone PV system

Criteria's for installing solar PV System are:

1. Site assessment
2. surveying
3. solar energy resource assessment
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The following points must be considered for the assessment and selection of
locations for installation.
i. Minimum Shade: It must be made sure that the selected site either at
rooftop or ground should not have shades or should not have any structure
that intercepts the solar radiation falling on the panels to be installed.
Also, make sure that there won’t be any structural construction soon
surrounding the installation that might cause the problem of shading.

ii. Surface Area: The surface area of the site at which the PV installation is
intended should be known, to have an estimation of the size and number
of panels required to generate the required power output for the load. This
also helps to plan the installation of inverter, converts, and battery banks.
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iii. Rooftop: In the case of the rooftop installation the type of roof and its
structure must be known. In the case of tilt roofs, the angle of tilt must be
known and necessary mounting must be used to make the panels have more
incidents of solar radiation i.e. ideally the radiation angle must be
perpendicular to the PV panel and practically as close as to 90 degrees.

iv. Routes: Possible routes for the cables from an inverter, battery bank,
charge controller, and PV array must be planned in a way that would have
minimum utilization of cables and lower voltage drop in cables. The
designer should choose between the efficiency and the cost of the system.
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While assessing the solar energy the data can be measured in two ways as
follows:
1. Kilowatt-hours per square meter per day (KWh/m2/day): It is a
quantity of energy measured in kilowatt-hours, falling on square meter
per day.
2. Daily Peak Sun Hours (PSH): Number of hours in a day during which
irradiance averages to 1000 W/m2
 Calculation of Energy Demand

The size of the standalone PV system depends on the load demand. The load and its
operating time vary for different appliances, therefore special care must be taken during
energy demand calculations.

 The energy consumption of the load can be determined by multiplying the power rating
(W) of the load by its number of hours of operation. Thus, the unit can be written as watt ×
hour or simply Wh.

Energy demand Watt-hour = Power rating in Watt × Duration of operation in hours. Thus,
the daily total energy demand in Wh is calculated by adding the individual load demand of
each appliance per day.

Total energy demand Watt-hour = ∑ (Power rating in Watt × Duration of operation in

hours).
 Inverter & Converter (Charge Controller) Ratings


For choosing the proper inverter both the input and output voltage and current rating
should be specified. The inverter’s output voltage is specified by the system load, it should
be able to handle the load current and the current taken from the battery bank. Based on
the total connected load to the system the inverter power rating can be specified.

Let’s consider 2.5 kVA  in our case, hence an inverter with power handling capacity
having a size of 20-30% higher than the power running the load should be chosen from the
market. In the case of motor load, it should be 3-5 times higher than the power demand of
such an appliance. In the case of the converter, the charge controller is rated in current and
voltage. Its current rating is calculated by using the short-circuit current rating of the PV
module. The value of voltage is the same as the nominal voltage of batteries.
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The charge controller rating should be 125% of the photovoltaic panel short
circuit current. In other words, It should be 25% greater than the short circuit
current of solar panel.
Size of solar charge controller in amperes = Short-circuit current of PV ×
1.25 (Safety factor).
For example, we need a 4 numbers each of 160W solar panels for our system.
Following are the related date of PV panel.
PM = 160 WPeak
VM = 17.9 VDC
IM = 8.9 A
VOC = 21.4 A
ISC = 10 A
The required rating of solar charge controller is = (4 panels x 10 A) x 1.25 = 50 A
Now, a 50A charge controller is needed for the 12V DC system configuration.
 Inverter Sizing

The size of Inverter should be 25% bigger than the total load due to losses and
efficiency problem in the inverter. In other words, It should be rated 125% than
the total load required in watts. For example, if the required wattage is 2400W,
than the size of inverter should be:

2400W x 125%

2400W x 1.25

3000 Watts.

So we need a 3kW of inverter in case of 2400W load

 System Voltage

The inverter input voltage is referred to as the system voltage. It is also the
overall battery pack voltage. This system voltage is decided by the selected
individual battery voltage, line current, maximum allowable voltage drop,
and power loss in the cable. Usually, the voltage of the batteries is 12 V so
will be the system voltage. But if we need higher voltage it should be
multiples of 12 V. i.e. 12 V, 24 V, 36 V, and so on.
By decreasing the current, power loss and voltage drop in the cable can be
reduced, this can be done by increasing the system voltage. This will
increase the number of batteries in the series. Therefore, one must choose
between power loss and system voltage. Now for our case let us consider
the system voltage of 24 V.
 Sizing of the Batteries

While sizing the battery some parameters are needed to be considered as

follows:
i. Depth of Discharge (DOD) of the battery.
ii. Voltage and ampere-hour (Ah) capacity of the battery.
iii. The number of days of autonomy
(It is the number of days required to power up the whole system (backup
power) without solar panels in case of full shading or rainy days.

Let us consider we have batteries of 12 V, 100 Ah with DOD of 70%. Thus,

the usable capacity of the is 100 Ah × 0.70 = 70 Ah. Therefore, the charged
capacity that is required is determined as follows;
Required charge capacity = energy supplied by the battery to the inverter
input/system voltage
Required charge capacity = 3000 Wh/ 24 V = 125 Ah
 From this, the number of batteries required can be calculated as;

No. of batteries required = Required charge capacity / (100 × 0.7)

No. of batteries required = 125 Ah / (100 × 0.7) = 1.78 (round off 2 batteries)
Thus, 2 batteries of 12 V, 100 Ah are required. But due to round off 140 Ah instead of
125 Ah is required.
Required charge capacity = 2 × 100Ah × 0.7 = 140 Ah
Therefore, two 12 V, 100 Ah batteries in parallel to meet the above charge capacity. But
as the individual battery is of 12 V, 100 Ah only and the system voltage requirement is
of 24 V we need to connect two batteries in series to get the system voltage of 24 V as
shown in figure 2 below
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So, in total there will be four batteries of 12 V, 100 Ah. Two

connected in series and two connected in parallel.

Also, the required capacity of batteries can be found by the following

formula.
 Sizing of the PV Array

Different sizes of PV modules available in the market produce a different level of output
power. One of the most common way to determine the sizing of the PV array is to use the
lowest mean daily insolation (Solar irradiance) in peak sun hours as follows;
The total size of PV array (W) = (Energy demand per day of a load (Wh) / T PH) × 1.25
Where TPH is the lowest daily average peak sun hours of a month per year & 1.25 is the scaling
factor. With this the number of PV modules Nmodules required can be determined as;
Nmodules = Total size of the PV array (W) / Rating of selected panels in peak-watts.
Suppose, in our case the load is 3000 Wh/per day. To know the needed total W Peak of a solar
panel capacity, we use PFG factor i.e.
Total WPeak of PV panel capacity = 3000 / 3.2 (PFG) = 931 WPeak
Now, the required number of PV panels are = 931 / 160W = 5.8.
This way, we need 6 numbers of solar panels each rated for 160W. You can find the exact
number of solar panels by dividing the WPeak by other rating i.e. 100W, 120W 150W etc based
on the availability.
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Note: The value of PFG (Panel Generation Factor) is varying (due to
climate and temperature changes) in different regions e.g, PFG in USA =
3.22, EU = 293, Thailand = 3.43 etc.
Moreover, the additional losses should be considered to find the exact panel
generation factor (PGF). These losses (in %) occur due to :
i. Sunlight not striking the solar panel straight on (5%)
ii. Not receiving energy at the maximum power point (excluded in case of
MPPT charge controller). (10%)
iii. Dirt on solar panels (5%)
iv. PV panels aging and below specification (10%)
v. Temperature above  25°C (15%)
 Sizing of the Cables

The sizing of the cables depends on many factors such as maximum current carrying
capacity. It should have a minimum voltage drop and have minimum resistive losses.
As the cables would be placed in the outdoor environment it should be water-resistant
and ultraviolet.
The cable must behave minimum voltage drop typically less than 2% as there is an
issue of voltage drop in low voltage system. Under sizing of the cables will result in
energy loss and sometimes can even lead to accidents. whereas the oversizing is not
economically affordable. The cross-sectional area of the cable is given as;
A = (ρIML / VD) × 2
Where,
ρ is the resistivity of the conducting wire material (ohm-meters).
L is the length of cable.
VD is the maximum permissible voltage drop.
IM is the maximum current carried by the cable.
In addition, you may use this cable and wire size calculator. Also, use the
proper sized circuit breaker and rated plugs and switches.
 Assignment (10%)
1. Suppose we have the following electrical load in watts where we need a 12V, 120W solar panel system design
and installation.
a. An LED lamp of 40W for 12 Hours per day.
b. A refrigerator of 80W for 8 Hours per day.
c. A DC Fan of 60W for 6 Hours per day.
Now determine the power consumption demand, number of solar panels, rating and sizing of charge controller,
inverter and batteries etc.
Pv module specification:
PM = 120 WPeak
VM = 15.9 VDC
IM = 7.5 A
VOC = 19.4 A
ISC = 8.8 A
 Question 2
2. A house has the following electrical appliance usage:
a. One 18 Watt fluorescent lamp with electronic ballast used 4 hours per day.
b. One 60 Watt fan used for 2 hours per day.
c. One 75 Watt refrigerator that runs 24 hours per day with compressor run 12 hours and off 12
hours.
The system will be powered by 12 Vdc, 110 Watt PV module. Determine the power consumption
demand, number of solar panels, rating and sizing of charge controller, inverter and batteries.
PV module specification
    Pm = 110 Wp
    Vm = 16.7 Vdc
    Im = 6.6 A
    Voc = 20.7 A
    Isc = 7.5 A
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Question