Performance and feasibility assessment of a 1.4 kW roof top grid-connected photovoltaic power system under desertic weather conditions

Abstract

This paper presents a design and evaluation practice of a grid-connected photovoltaic system installed in Sohar, Oman. Hourly solar radiation and ambient temperature data for one year time are utilized. The designed system is implemented practically and tested for six months to check its productivity and feasibility. The system is evaluated using three technical criteria which are capacity, yield and performance factors. In addition, system's feasibility is evaluated in terms of cost of energy and payback period. The results show that the capacity and the yield factors for the proposed system are 21% and 1875 kW h/kW p/year respectively. In addition, the performance factor of the proposed system is 84.6%. In the meanwhile, the cost of the energy generated and the payback period of the proposed system are 0.045 USD/kW h and 11 years, respectively. This study contains valuable experiment data for those who are interested in photovoltaic system in Oman and nearby desertic zones. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.