Phys154 - Energy, organisms, and human societyCase Study OneDomestic solar photovoltaic systemYou will be using data for one year of daily electricity production for a grid-connected solar pv system, toexamine the feasibility of going off-grid. The data are available in a spreadsheet in the “Reports and UsefulData” folder on the elearning site.Your objective is to determine the optimum combina
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Phys154 - Energy, organisms, and human society
Case Study One
Domestic solar photovoltaic system
You will be using data for one year of daily electricity production for a grid-connected solar pv system, to
examine the feasibility of going off-grid. The data are available in a spreadsheet in the “Reports and Useful
Data” folder on the elearning site.
Your objective is to determine the optimum combination of generating capacity and storage needed to allow
the home to go off-grid. The home is currently connected to the grid and the pv system puts electricity into
the grid through one meter, whilst the house takes electricity from the grid via another meter.
The parameters for the study are i) assume a fixed daily consumption of 6 kWh, and ii) the existing system
is rated at 1.5 kW peak.
Make sure you quote sources for all additional information you use.
1. Determine the average daily production of the system, the standard deviation of the daily production, and
the total annual production.
2. Produce a histogram of the daily output, using bins of 0.5 kWh.
3. Produce a graph of the cumulative distribution of the daily output with the same bin size as before.
4. What proportion of days are within one standard deviation of the mean?
5. Add 20 kWh of battery storage to the system and determine the number of days for which the household
has a shortfall in its supply. Assume the battery storage has a round-trip effciency of 85%.
6. Obtain figures for the cost per kWh of storage, and for the cost per Watt for increasing the generating
capacity.
7. Determine three different combinations of additional capacity and storage which enable the home to be
without electricty for no more than one day in the year. Which of these has the lowest cost?
8. If the system has a working life of 25 years, determine the total cost of the system per year, and compare
this with the cost of the home getting all its electricity from the grid.
George Takacs, 14:42, March 28, 2013.
Works Cited
Huggins, Robert A. Energy Storage. New York: Springer, 2010. Print.
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