Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Lecture 15 - Designing Stand-Alone PV Systems -

Case Study

Alan P. Morrison

November 13, 2019

Alan P. Morrison
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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Table of contents

1 Problem

2 Load determination

3 Battery selection

4 Array sizing and tilt

5 Other system components

6 LCCA

7 Final design

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Description of problem

Need to power 10 cu.ft. refrigerator used to store medication.

99% availability is required.
System to be located in remote rural village in Angola.
Two refrigeration systems are under consideration:
I Standard 10 cu.ft. 120 Vac refrigerator, costing $338 and
consuming 530 kWh/year.
I High-efficiency 10 cu.ft. 24 Vdc fridge, costing $1515 and uses
12.5 Ah/day with 2.4 A operating current at 24 V.

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Load Determination

Convert all loads to Ah.

ac load uses inverter with 24 V input with 90% assumed
efficiency.
ac → 530
365 × 1000
24 = 60.50 Ah/day
Divide by inverter efficiency → 60.50
0.9 = 67.22 Ah/day
Wiring losses should be limited to 2% voltage drop, which will
correspond to 2% Ah drop.
→ 67.22
0.98 = 68.6 Ah/day.
For battery storage we must account for charge/discharge
losses ∼10%, as long as charge/discharge rate falls within
manufacturer’s recommendations.
Fully corrected load for ac system → 68.6
0.9 = 76.2 Ah/day

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Load Determination

For dc system the corrected load is:

12.5 ÷ 0.98 ÷ 0.9 = 14.2 Ah/day

NOTE: The corrected load is the Ah that must be supplied to

the batteries so they can power the connected load.

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Battery selection

Need to know the minimum peak sun hours per day for a
given location.
Can then estimate the number of days of autonomy required
from:
Dcrit = −1.9Tmin + 18.3
Dnon = −0.48Tmin + 4.58
where Tmin is the minimum number of peak sun hours for the
selected tilt angle during any month of operation and D is the
number of storage days required for critical and non-critical
loads. These equations are valid if Tmin ≥ 1

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Battery selection

Angola is south of equator, so array faces north.

From table of insolation values: Average daily peak sun hours
= 5.03 over the year.
Minimum peak sun hours (July)

Latitude − 15o = 3.36

Latitude = 3.71
Latitude + 15o = 3.93

Latitude+15o has the largest value from minimum peak sun

hours → Tmin = 3.93 hours → Dcrit = 10.83 ∼ 11 days

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Battery selection

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Battery selection

Use deep cycle batteries with DOD = 80%.

→ for ac system need 76.3 × 11 ÷ 0.8 = 1048 Ah
for dc system need 14.2 × 11 ÷ 0.8 = 195 Ah
There are 2 battery types available:
I 6 V, 350 Ah flooded lead-acid costing $198 with 5-8 year life
expectancy
1 for 1048 Ah at 24 V → need 12 of these batteries, $2376.
2 for 195 Ah at 24 V → need 4 of these batteries, $792
I 6 V, 220 Ah flooded lead-acid costing$85 with 5 year life
expectancy
1 for 1048 Ah at 24 V → need 20 of these batteries, $1700.
2 for 195 Ah at 24 V → need 4 of these batteries, $340

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Battery selection
Assume 20 year system lifetime
at 5% interest rate and 3% inflation - do life cycle cost analysis:

P W = C0 (0.981)n
350 Ah batteries must be replaced at 8 and 16 years
220 Ah batteries must be replaced at 5, 10 and 15 years.
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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Array sizing and tilt

System design current → corrected system load is calculated

for each month of the year.

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Array sizing and tilt

System must work under the worst conditions → maximum

design current must be chosen as the necessary design current
There will be excess capacity for the other months → need a
charge controller to prevent overcharging the batteries.
Can also use excess capacity for other applications/purposes...
Tilt that results in the smallest worst case design current is
Latitude+15o .
This meets the requirements for all the other months and
results in the smallest number of required PV modules.

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Array sizing and tilt

Can also look at effect of varying the tilt angle throughout the
year:

No savings in module number as the worst case current is still

in July, as already designed for.
May be cost savings if manual tilt adjustment results in more
power from the array, that can be used elsewhere.
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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Array sizing and tilt

#PV modules → divide array design current by current

available from selected module, corrected by a degradation
factor due to dirt and ageing of ∼0.9.
This is rounded up to the nearest whole number.
For dc refrigerator load, derated design current
→3.61 ÷ 0.9 = 4.01 A.
Selected module has 4.4 A rated current → need 2 modules in
series to meet design spec.

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Array sizing and tilt

For ac refrigerator load, we have: 76.2 ÷ 3.61 ÷ 0.9 = 23.5 A.

Using 4.4 A modules → need 10.66 ∼ 11 modules to meet
design spec.
However, you need to have same number of modules in each
parallel string → 12 modules arranged as 2 in series × 6
parallel strings.
If each 4.4 A module costs $350 then:

dc system modules cost = $700

ac system modules cost = $4200
dc system mounts = $200
ac system mounts = $600

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Controller, Inverter and dc:dc converter selection

dc system needs charge controller, while ac system needs

charge controller and inverter.
Controller must be able to handle charging current from the
array, as well as the current to the load.

dc system charge controller cost = $100

ac system charge controller cost = $200

Inverters and converters must be able to handle starting/surge

currents of the load.
For motor driven loads the designer must determine whether
the motor will be damaged by dc or harmonics.

Inverter for ac system cost = $125

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Wire, fuse and switch selection

The correct wire size is the larger of either the size needed to
carry the rated current, or the size needed to meet voltage
drop constraints.
Wire sizes for the array:
I Array short circuit current × 1.25 to account for potential
current increases due to enhanced sunlight conditions.
I This is maximum array current and is × 1.25 again for
continuous operation.
Fuses or circuit breakers in the line to the battery system must
be located close to the batteries.
Fuses in other lines are normally located at or near the
controller.
Switches must be capable of carrying the maximum current in
any wire.
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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Balance of system component selection

Remaining system components include:

I Container for batteries
I Conduit
I Plugs and receptacles
I Fuse holders and surge protectors
I Ground rods, wire connectors and terminal lugs etc...
Cost of BOS components is typically 10% of the array cost,
depending on nature of components.

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Life-cycle cost analysis

Note 220 Ah battery used in dc system and 350 Ah for ac.

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Life-cycle cost analysis

Using the more expensive dc refrigerator results in an overall

lower system cost.
The dc system has lower capital costs as well as lower
replacement costs.
It is quite possible that the ac refrigerator will need to be
replaced in less than 20 years, but replacement costs are
marginal at only 2.5% of the system LCC.

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Final system design

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Problem Load determination Battery selection Array sizing and tilt Other system components LCCA Final design

Final system design

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