| Author | Pathak, Abhishek |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ET-16-09 |
| Subject(s) | Photovoltaic power generation
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Energy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The land-use requirements of solar photovoltaic systems are high when compared to other sources of renewable and non-renewable energy. Reducing the lad-use of solar photovoltaic would go a long way to reducing the costs associated with the generation of electricity from solar systems. In this study, the main objective was to maximize the power output from a solar photovoltaic array from limited urban rooftop area. The method chosen to achieve this objective was panel stacking. A scenario was created where 7 different types of buildings were present in an urban environment which were LIG, MIG, HIG, Community Center, Educational building, Commercial building and a Hospital. Since buildings come in many shapes and sizes, various length-width ratios were chosen for each building. Two configuration scenarios were chosen, one being the base-case and the other being the proposed configuration. Each configuration was then applied to the 7 different buildings, each with its own distinct roof area and the analysis was carried out for various roof dimension ratios for each building type. The results from this analysis showed that for smaller buildings with an area less than about 350 m2, the optimum roof dimension for the proposed configuration that would yield the highest energy was found to be less than 1. From buildings of a size larger than 350m2, the optimum roof dimension ratio was found to be greater than 1. Following this, two optimizations were carried out on the various configuration scenarios for each of the buildings. In the first optimization scenario, the module tilt was changed on a monthly basis according to the monthly optimum tilt angle and the electricity yield was calculated for each configuration scenario. It was found that optimizing the tilt angle on a monthly basis would yield a much higher electricity generation on an annual basis for both the configuration scenarios for all the different buildings. In the second optimization scenario, the inter-row array spacing was adjusted according to the shadow length of each array for the mean day of every month. From this analysis, it was found that the increase in generation was significantly higher than even the first optimization process for all the configuration scenarios. But, this optimization is not a feasible one since this would involve adding or removing modules from the solar system on a monthly basis which is not practically possible and would be financially unfeasible. In the final section of this study, a financial feasibility analysis was carried out using RETScreen software in order to judge the financial merits of the various scenarios. The results showed that the magnitude financial parameters like the benefit-cost ratio, the simple payback and the equity payback periods were almost similar for all the different types of buildings, the optimum roof ratios of which were used for the analysis. The net present value of the proposed configuration scenarios, however, were higher for each case but that is because of the higher initial investment costs for the proposed configuration scenario. Thus, the business decision of which configuration to choose for each type of building scenario can be based purely on the technical aspect of the system, i.e. the scenario which generates higher energy on a yearly basis. |
| Year | 2016 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kumar, Sivanappan; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Than, Lin;Singh, Jai Govind; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | IDBI Bank Ltd., India;Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2016 |