Energy and economic analysis of solar photovoltaic plants located at the University of Calabria

Abstract

The aim of the study is to evaluate the electric energy produced by flat-plate and concentrating photovoltaics plants located at the University of Calabria for a total peak power of 1.4 MW. The analyses were conducted using climate data from technical standards and from experimental data measured in the weather station of the Department of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering. For flat-plate photovoltaics, the predictive simplified Siegel method based on monthly average daily values of the external air temperature and global solar radiation on horizontal surface was compared with the results provided by TRNSYS dynamic software simulation. The hourly electrical energy produced by the concentrating photovoltaic arrays was obtained solely by TRNSYS software, since the simplified Siegel method is not applicable. The results obtained were used to compare the Siegel method and TRNSYS software dynamic calculation, and also to verify the influence of the climatic data used on the predicted performances of the photovoltaic plants. The provisional results of produced electrical energy were compared with the actual values of the hourly electrical consumption of the previous year in order to evaluate the percentage of annual self-consumption hours. Finally, a detailed economic analysis for the estimation of investment convenience was conducted.