Design and Feasibility Studies of a Small Scale Grid Connected Solar PV Power Plant

The depletion of fossil fuel resources on a worldwide basis has necessitated an urgent search for alternative energy sources to meet up the present day demands. Solar energy is clean, inexhaustible and environment-friendly potential resource among renewable energy options. But neither a standalone solar photovoltaic system nor a wind energy system can provide a continuous supply of energy due to seasonal and periodic variations. Therefore, in order to satisfy the load demand, grid connected energy systems are now becomes promising options that combine solar and conventional energy systems to meet the future energy demand at reduces consumption of fossil fuels. In the present work it is tried to develop a small scale grid connected solar photovoltaic (SPV) system. The details of the grid connected solar photovoltaic system are studied first. Here, in this present work 1 kWp SPV system is considered for system design. Then it is installed on the roof top of our School of Energy Studies Building and successfully connected with the grid. We find that the system is feeding power to the grid successfully. From the performance analysis of the system we found that the power feeding to the grid maximum 814 W at the radiation of around 1003 W/m2 and the overall system efficiencies are varying from 12.3% to 18.42% at different level of solar intensity. We also found the average energy generation from the present system is around 3 - 4 kWh/day in the last rainy seasons. These results are the evidence of reliability and feasibility of the present system. And it will help to reduce the electricity bill for the consumers who have maximum consumption in day hours i.e. School, College, Office, Commercial buildings, Shops etc. To best of our Knowledge this is the first time such type of small scale grid connected solar photo voltaic (SPV) system was reported.