PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS

chapter 9
From : Renewable and Efficient Electric Power
Systems
Gilbert M. Masters
Stanford University
• The focus of this chapter is on the analysis and
design of photovoltaic (PV) systems in their three
most commonly encountered configuration:
– systems that feed power directly into the utility grid,
– stand-alone systems that charge batteries, perhaps
with generator back-up, and
– applications in which the load is directly connected to
the PVs i.e., solar water-pumping systems, solar lights
etc.
Grid-connected System
• Large Utility-scale or house/building scale
• The PVs in a grid-connected system deliver dc power to a
power control unit (PCU) that converts dc to ac and sends
power to the house/building.
– If the PVs supply less than the immediate demand of the
building, the PCU draws supplementary power from the
utility grid, so demand is always satisfied.
– If, at any moment, the PVs supply more power than is
needed, the excess is sent back onto the grid, potentially
spinning the electric meter backwards.
– The system is relatively simple since batteries are not
needed for back-up power, although sometimes they may
be included if utility outages are problematic.
• power-control unit keeps the PVs operating at the most
efficient point(MPP) on their I – V curves as conditions
change.
• Grid-connected PV systems have a number of
desirable attributes:
– simplicity can result in high reliability;
– high PV efficiency;
– low integration complexity.
• their ability to deliver power during the peak
hours of the day, when utility rates are highest,
increases the economic value of their kilowatt-
hours.
• All of these attributes contribute to the cost-
effectiveness of these systems.
Stand-Alone System
• second system, which is an off-grid, stand-alone system with battery storage and
a generator for back-up power.
• but in very simple systems everything may be run on dc and no inverter may be
necessary. The charging function of the inverter allows the generator to top up the
batteries when solar is insufficient.
• Stand-alone PV systems can be very cost-effective in remote locations where
the only alternatives may be noisy, high-maintenance generators burning
relatively expensive fuel, or extending the existing utility grid to the site,
which can cost thousands of dollars per mile.
• These systems suffer from several inefficiencies:
– including battery losses
– Maintenance and replacement cost of batteries
– PV efficiency (PV should operate at MPP)
– inefficiencies are often increased by mounting the array at an overly steep
tilt angle to supply relatively uniform amounts of energy through the
seasons, rather than picking an angle that results in the maximum
possible energy.
– These systems also require much more attention and care.
– May need to modify their lifestyles to accommodate the uneven
availability of power as the seasons change or the weather deteriorates.
• The third system type that we will pay close attention to has photovoltaic directly
coupled to the loads, without any batteries or major power conditioning
equipment.
• The most common example is PV water pumping in which the wires from the array
are connected directly to the motor running a pump.
• These systems are the ultimate in simplicity and reliability and are the least costly
as well. But they need to be carefully designed to be efficient.
 CURRENT–VOLTAGE CURVES FOR LOADS

• Therefore, when the I – V curve for the load is plotted onto the same graph that
has the I – V curve for the PVs, the intersection point is the one spot at which both
the PVs and load are satisfied. This is called the operating point.
 Simple Resistive-Load I – V Curve
• when plotted on current versus voltage axes,
is a straight line with slope 1/ R .
• Where Vm and Im are the voltage and current at the maximum power point(MPP).

• That means the best value of resistance, for maximum power transfer, should be
V/I.
• As Fig. 9.6 shows, however, with a fixed resistance the operating point slips off the
MPP as conditions change and the module becomes less and less efficient.
 DC Motor I – V Curve

• as the motor spins, it develops a back electromotive force e , which is a

voltage proportional to the speed of the motor ( ω ) that opposes the
voltage supplied by the photovoltaics.
• as the torque requirement increases, the motor slows slightly, which drops
the back emf and allows more armature current to flow. Since motor
torque is proportional to armature current, the slowing motor draws more
current, delivers more torque to the load, and regains almost all of its lost
speed.
• at start-up, while ω = 0, the current rises rapidly with increasing voltage until
current is sufficient to create enough starting torque to break the motor loose
from static friction.
• Once the motor starts to spin, back emf drops the current and thereafter I rises
more slowly with increasing voltage.
• A dc motor I – V curve is superimposed on a set of photovoltaic I – V curves in Fig. 9.9.
• The mismatch of operating points with the ideal MPP is apparent.
• the motor doesn’t have enough current to overcome static friction until insolation reaches at
least.Once it starts spinning, however, it only needs about to keep running.
• which adds to the inefficiency of this simple PV – motor setup.
• By converting low-current, high-voltage power into high-current, low-voltage
power, they can get the motor started.
• The lower voltage, however, means that the motor will spin at a slower rate,
but at least it is working.
 Battery I – V Curves
• An ideal battery is one in which the voltage remains constant no matter how much
current is drawn.
• This means that it will have an I – V curve that is simply a straight up-and-down
line.
• Different other factors effect the performance of the
battery:
– open-circuit voltage ( VB) depends not only on the state of
charge but also on battery temperature and how long it
has been resting without any current flowing.
– VB ranges from 12.7 V for a fully charged battery to about
11.7 V for one that has only a few percent of its charge
remaining.
– Internal resistance is also a function of temperature and
state of charge, as well the age and condition of the
battery.
– No. of time charged and discharged
• Since current has to be slowed or stopped anyway
when a battery reaches full charge.
 Maximum Power Point Trackers
• significant efficiency gains could be realized if the operating points for resistive, dc motor,
and battery loads could somehow be kept near the knee of the PV I – V curves
throughout the ever-changing daily conditions.
• A boost converter is a commonly used circuit to step up the voltage from a dc source,
• while a buck converter is often used to step down voltage.
• A buck-boost converter is capable of raising or lowering a dc voltage from its source to
whatever dc voltage is needed by the load.
• The source in this case is shown as being a PV module and the load is shown as a dc
motor.
• With a fast enough switch and a large enough inductor, the circuit can be designed
to have nearly constant inductor current. That’s our first important insight into
how this circuit works: Inductor current is essentially constant.
• if the switch is cycling fast enough and the capacitor is sized large enough, the
output voltage across the capacitor and load is nearly constant.
• This variation in the fraction of time the switch is in one state or the other is
referred to as pulse-width modulation (PWM).
• the average power into the converter is equal to the average power delivered by
the converter; that is, it has 100% efficiency. Real MPPTs have efficiencies in the
mid-90% range, so this isn’t a bad assumption.
• For a duty cycle of 1/2, the output voltage is the same as the input voltage.
• A duty cycle of 2/3 results in a doubling of voltage, while D = 1/3 cuts voltage in
half.
• An actual MPP tracker uses microprocessor that periodically varies the duty cycle
up and down a bit while monitoring the output power to see whether any
improvement can be achieved.
 GRID-CONNECTED SYSTEMS
• Photovoltaic systems mounted on buildings are becoming increasingly popular as
prices decrease and the installation infrastructure becomes increasingly mature.
• Additional components not shown include:
– the maximum power point tracker (MPPT),
– a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) that shuts the system down if any currents flow
to ground, and circuitry to disconnect the PV system from the grid.
– battery bank to provide back-up power
• An alternative approach to the single inverter system shown in Fig. 9.21 is based on each
PV module having its own small inverter mounted directly onto the backside of the panel.
• These ac modules allow simple expansion of the system, one module at a time, as the
needs or budget dictate.
• Another advantage is that the connections from modules to the house distribution panel
can all be done with relatively inexpensive, conventional 120- or 240-V ac switches,
breakers, and wiring.
• For large grid-connected systems, the system is modularized, making it easier to service
portions of the system without taking the full array off line.
• Expensive dc cabling is also minimized making the installation potentially cheaper than a
large, central inverter.
1-Interfacing with the Utility
– In most cases, whenever the PV system delivers more power
than the home needs at that moment, the electric meter runs
backwards, building up a credit with the utility.
– At other times, when demand exceeds that supplied by the PVs,
the grid provides supplementary power.
– This arrangement, in which a single electric meter runs in both
directions, is called net metering .
– The power control unit absolutely must be designed to quickly
and automatically drop the PV system from the grid in the event
of a utility power outage referred to as an “island”. A number of
very serious problems may occur if PV system continues to
supply power during such an outage.
– A small battery back-up system may be included If the users
really need uninterruptible power for longer periods of time
during an outage of Utility..
2- DC and AC rated power
– A good starting point to estimate system performance is the rated dc power
output of an individual module under standard test conditions (STC) that is, 1-
sun, AM 1.5 and 25◦C cell temperature.

• where Pdc(STC) is the dc power of the array obtained by simply adding the
individual module ratings under standard test conditions.
• The conversion efficiency accounts for inverter efficiency, dirty collectors,
mismatched modules, and differences in ambient conditions etc.
• Even in full sun, the impact of these losses can easily derate the power
output by 20 – 40%
• Figure 9.24 shows a simple example consisting of two mismatched 180-W modules wired in
parallel.
• the sum of their I – V curves shows that the maximum power of the combined modules is
only 330 W instead of the 360 W that would be expected if their I – V curves were identical.
• Some 100-W modules may really be 103 W and others 97 W, for example. In other words,
production tolerances can reduce array output as well.
• An even more important factor that reduces module power below the rated value is cell
temperature. In the field, the cells are likely to be much hotter than the 25 at which they are
rated and we know that as temperature increases, power decreases.
• Finally there is the efficiency of the inverter itself, which varies depending
on the load. Good grid-connect inverters have efficiencies above 90%
when operating at all but very low loads.
• Cells vary in temperature not only because ambient temperatures
change, but also because insolation on the cells changes.
• Since only a small fraction of the insolation hitting a module is
converted to electricity and carried away, most of that incident
energy is absorbed and converted to heat.
• To help system designers account for changes in cell performance
with temperature, manufacturers often provide an indicator called
the NOCT, which stands for nominal operating cell temperature.
• The NOCT is the cell temperature in a module when the ambient is
20◦C, solar irradiation is 0.8 kW/m2, and windspeed is 1 m/s. To
account for other ambient conditions, the following expression may
be used:

• where Tcell is cell temperature (◦C), Tamb is ambient temperature,

and S is solar insolation (kW/m2).
• VOC drops by about 0.37% for each degree and
• decrease in maximum power available of about 0.5%/◦C.
3-‘‘Peak-Hours’’ Approach to Estimating PV Performance
– 1-sun of insolation is defined as 1 kW/, then 5.6 kWh/ -day as being the same
as 5.6 h/day of 1-sun, or 5.6 h of “peak sun.
4-Capacity Factors for PV Grid-Connected Systems
– If the system delivered full, rated power continuously, the CF would be unity.
– A CF of 0.4, for example, could mean that the system delivers full-rated power
40% of the time and no power at all the rest of the time. But that is not the
only interpretation. It could also deliver 40% of rated power all of the time and
still have CF = 0.4, or any of a number of other combinations.
5-Grid-Connected System Sizing
– With the utility, it is not required to provide energy storage and back-up
power
– Sizing grid-connected systems is not nearly as critical as it is for stand-alone
systems.
– Sizing grid-connected systems therefore is more a matter of how much area
is conveniently available on the building, and the budget of the buyer.
– System sizing is straightforward.
• How many kWh/yr are required?
• How many peak watts of dc PV power are needed to provide that amount?
• How much area will that system require?
• Most traditional collectors on the market have 36 or 72 series
cells in order to satisfy 12- or 24-V battery charging applications.
• Higher-voltage, higher-power modules are now becoming
popular in grid-connected systems, for which battery voltage
constraints no longer apply.
• The key characteristics of a number of high-power modules
intended for grid connections are given in Table 9.4.
• Similarly, inverters for grid-connected systems are also different from
those designed for battery-charging applications.
• Grid-connected inverters, for example, accept much higher input voltages
and, as we shall see, those voltage constraints very much affect how the
PV array is configured.
• The most important parameters for a number of inverters intended for
grid-connected applications are given in Table 9.5.
• For example 9.6, let us try the Kyocera KC158G 158-W module with the
Xantrex STXR2500 inverter.
• Begin by determining the number of modules required. Since they are rated at
158 W each and we need 2300 dc, STC watts, we have

• To help us decide between 14 modules or 15 modules, consider how they

might be arranged into an array.
• With two modules per string, the STC-rated voltage would be 2 × 23.2 = 46.4 V,
which just barely falls into the MPPT range of 44–85 V for the inverter picked.
• At higher temperatures, the module voltage could drop below 44 V, which
isn’t so good.
• At three modules per string, the rated voltage becomes 3 × 23.2 = 69.6 V,
which fits nicely with the MPPT range.
• This suggests using an array with five strings of three modules each, for a
totalof 15 modules.
• It is important to estimate the maximum open-circuit voltage of the array to be
sure that it doesn’t violate the highest dc voltage that the inverter can accept,
which in this case is 120 V.
• With three modules in a series, each having a VOC at STC of 28.9 V, the string
voltage could reach 3 × 28.9 = 86.7 V. This is well below the 120-V limit.
• But, remember that VOC increases when the cell temperature is below the STC
assumption of 25◦C.
• We could imagine that on a cold morning, with a strong, cold wind and low
sunlight, cell temperature might be close to ambient, and that might be well
below 25◦C.
• With VOC increasing by 0.38%/◦C below 25◦C (for crystalline silicon), the open-
circuit voltage could then be well above its STC value.
• The proposed National Electrical Code (NEC) for PV systems
specifies other constraints on the choice of wires, fuses, and
disconnect switches.
• They must be capable of withstanding 1.25 times the expected dc
voltage.
• The NEC also recommends multiplying all PV currents by 1.25 to
account for two possibilities:
– (1) the potential for insolation to exceed the 1-sun level of 1000 W/m2 and
– (2) the increase in short-circuit current (approximately 0.1%/◦C) caused by
cell temperatures above the 25◦C standard.
• In addition, the NEC requires that the continuous current of any
circuit be multiplied by 1.25 to ensure that fuses, switches, and
other disconnects as well as conductors are not operated above
80% of their rating.
• The two 125% current factors are independent and must be
multiplied (1.25 × 1.25 = 1.56) to properly size conductors and
switchgear.