Optimization of significant insolation distribution parameters – A new approach towards BIPV system design

System efficiency and payback time are yet to attain a commercially viable level for solar photovoltaic energy projects. Despite huge development in prediction of solar radiation data, there is a gap in extraction of pertinent information from such data. Hence the available data cannot be effectively utilized for engineering application. This is acting as a barrier for the emerging technology. For making accurate engineering and financial calculations regarding any solar energy project, it is crucial to identify and optimize the most significant statistic(s) representing insolation availability by the Photovoltaic setup at the installation site. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique has been applied for identifying the statistic(s), which are of high significance from a project designer's point of view. A MATLAB™ program has been used to build the annual frequency distribution of hourly insolation over any module plane at a given location. Descriptive statistical analysis of such distributions is done through MINITABTM. For Building Integrated Photo Voltaic (BIPV) installation, similar statistical analysis has been carried out for the composite frequency distribution, which is formed by weighted summation of insolation distributions for different module planes used in the installation. Vital most influential statistic(s) of the composite distribution have been optimized through Artificial Neural Network computation. This approach is expected to open up a new horizon in BIPV system design.