Solar PV technology for smart cities of India

Abstract

The Smart City guidelines under “Smart Cities Mission” declared by Government of India insist 10% of the Smart City’s energy requirement come from solar energy by generating electricity through solar PV rooftop installation, street lightings etc. Considering the life span of a solar PV power plant more than 20years, the study on meteorological parameters such as the latitude, ambient temperature, humidity and pollution level is necessary for choosing the right PV technology and precisely forecasting the power generation. The negative impact on environment of the unrestrained population growth has also been discussed. This study assessed five different solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies-monocrystalline silicon (mcSi), polycrystalline silicon (pcSi), amorphous silicon (aSi), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and Cadmiun Telluride (CdTe) in various smart cities located in different zones of India using PVsyst simulation software and facilitated the PV installers to plan and identify the best PV technology for a particular smart city. Thin film technologies-CIGS and CdTe has better performance ratios (PR) and capacity utilisation factor (CUF) in all six zones due to their low temperature power coefficient and ability to perform in low light or diffuse radiation condition.