Department of Energy Material and Energy Research Center (MERC) Karaj, Iran n.barhemmati@gmail.com
Abstract In this work we have tried to supply electrical demand of a rural house without connection to national grid, using day to day necessary appliances, by photovoltaic system. Primarily electrical consumption of all appliances were estimated using energy charts, by considering the working time, total daily energy consumption was calculated. The four year registered data at MERC was obtained using a pyranometer, where time of radiation, least radiation intensity was obtained from the registered data, where from them calculations for electrical supply was used, with regard to radiation time, daily electrical consumption, number of photovoltaic panels, their related accessories were calculated. Calculations indicate that it is required to have 11 photovoltaic panels with 45W power, 3 inverters of 700W and 2, 12V and 120Ah batteries. Results can be used for rural houses, where due to long distances providing electricity to them from the national electric network would be very expensive.
Keywords-component: Photovoltaic panel; Solar Irradiation; DC/AC Converter (Inverter); Average electricity consumption I. INTRODUCTION Sun is the source of many energy resources used by human being. In addition of thermal and electrical energy obtained from the sun radiation, it is the source of causing other energies such as wind, wave, hydro, etc. Although only small part of total radiation energy of sun reaches the earth, approximately 1/(210 9 ), the sun radiation reaching the earth in one second is more than total energy consumption of earth in one year. Also consumption of solar energy is very simple and doesnt require complicated and expensive structure. To construct and operate as well as clean energy it is also available in most areas, therefore it does not have the energy transport problems [1]. With regard to increase of pollutions and reduction of possible. Fuel resources, use of solar energy becomes attractive. Photovoltaic technology is one of the most common methods of solar energy usage, and the solar panels that work with this technology, convert solar radiation to electricity. The produced electricity by means of the solar panels can be used for rural areas, small industries, telecommunication stations, metrological stations, border patrol, trade centers, houses and agricultural water pumping. Iran is situated in 5125 Northern latitude and eastern longitude of 4135, and receiving acceptable rate of solar radiation. In Figure1, The solar map of Iran is shown [2]. Meshkin-dasht is situated at 50.57 eastern longitude and northern latitude of 35.48. According to Figure1 and registered data in the MERC, the rate of average solar radiation in this area is 6250 MJ/m2 [3]. This means use of solar PV panel is feasible for this area.
Fig.1. Total solar energy radiation received annually to a unit horizontal surface for various areas (KWh/m2) in Iran [2] 2012 Second Iranian Conference on Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation 978-1-4673-0665-2/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE 18 A. Photovoltaic Systems: Photovoltaic system consists of solar cells, where they can convert direct sunlight to electricity, therefore more attention have been paid to them for producing electricity, New range of solar cells are based on semiconductors, they have P-N connections (light sensitive diodes) in vast surfaces. Photovoltaic effect that converts direct light to electrical energy, happen in three layers of energy conversions. First layer of these three layers is upper connection layer (N type semiconductor). Second layer in this structure is core, where it is the absorption layer P-N connection. Third layer (P type semiconductor) is the lowest part of the three layers. Photovoltaic cells are made by three methods namely: single crystal, multi crystal and amorphous (shapeless), where due to its crystal shapes, have different efficiencies. Table 1, shows efficiencies of various photovoltaic cells [4]. TABLE I. EFFICIENCY OF VARIOUS PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS [4]
Type of structure Practical efficiency (%) Experimental efficiency (%) single crystal 14-17 24 multi crystal 13-15 18 amorphous 5-7 13
Properties of solar cells with maximum open circuit voltage of V oc when the output current is zero and short circuit I sc
when the output voltage is zero can be obtained. Power of the cell can be calculated as Equation (1). P = I V (1) Therefore with one element being zero the power would equal to zero, (V=0, I=I sc ) and (I=0, V=V oc ). It is possible to predict that combination of current and voltage less than maximum can result in maximum power, where it is known as maximum power point. In many of the solar design works, effort has been put to reach this point. With some considerations in its structure, regardless of radiation conditions, it is possible to reach near this point, as shown in Figure2 [4].
Fig.2. Output voltage and current from solar cells with various radiation intensities [4] As it can be seen in Figure2, the most important point is constant behavior of the voltage with variation in solar radiation intensities, whereas the current changes with radiation intensity variation. Output of the cells would increase when using solar tracking systems or concentrators, but due to its high cost and sophistical they are not commonly used, Figure3 [5].
Fig.3. Output power from a solar panel, in two modes of operation; tracking and stationary [5] In order to increase voltage the solar cells are connected in series. Panels at various sizes for different application are made. According to table2, panels are normally divided to three categories; low voltage panels or powers of less than 1.5- 6 volt and few milli watt power, small panels with 1-10watt power and 3-10V voltage, large panels with 10-60watt power and 6-12V voltage [6]. TABLE II. TECHNICAL PROPERTIES OF PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS [6]
Types of panels Low voltage/power Small Large Voltage (V) 1.5-6 3-10 6-12 Output Power (W) Few milli watt 1-10 10-60
19 B. Photovoltaic system accessories: The photovoltaic systems can be divided to three important sections; Solar panels, power production or control system, demand section or electrical load [2]. C. Solar panels: This section is in fact a converter of solar radiation energy to electric energy without any mechanical means. Photovoltaic panels that are situated under the sun rays, consist of several photovoltaic cells. Current and voltage output from this panels are DC. These panels are manufactured somehow to resist all the environment effects such as; extreme cold, hot, humidity and wind effects. However the covering materials of these panels are made of glass and can break in strong impacts [5]. D. Control section: This section in fact controls the whole system and the produced powers of panels are transformed to the battery or demand section, depending on the design and demand. It is important to say that in this section incorporated specifications and elements with regard to electrical load demand, consumes and local whether condition can be change. Therefore the possible damage of each section or related data can be obtained from the control section. This section consists of several subsections such as; batteries, charge controller or maximum power point tracker MPPT, inverter and control system. It should be noticed that for any consumer it is not necessary to apply all the mentioned systems, depending on the specification and requirements of each consumers, this section consist of below equipments: 1) Maximum power point tracker (MPPT): This system is a DC-DC converter, where it adjusts the impedance between the dynamic resistance of solar panels and the consumer. This system can be used both for separate as well as connected systems to the electrical networks [7]. 2) Inverter, DC-AC converter: Converting power from DC to AC by use of a converter (inverter). In the photovoltaic systems the produced electricity are in the DC form, however most of the electrical demand and appliances consume electricity in the form of AC, it is possible to convert this DC power to AC, using an inverter system and the properties such as voltage and frequency can be adjusted as it is demanded. Inverters can be divided to three groups; stand alone inverters, synchronous inverters and multi function inverters. 3) Consumer: Consumer may require DC or AC electricity, with regard to various design arrays of the photovoltaic panels, the required power of the consumer can be supplied [6,8]. II. DATA COLECTIONS AND CALCULATIONS With reference to the data registered at MERC, mean rate of sun radiation in the area is 6250 MJ/m 2 (MERC,2010). Figure 4 to 7, shows the monthly radiation of a year, for the years between 2007 to 2010 at Meshkin-dasht, Karaj. In these data the minimum, maximum and mean monthly radiation are separately indicated. The datas were measured using pyranometer system (CM22) consisting of 2 channel data logger and a light sensor (BD-300) and 4 channel data analyzer, which are situated in the solar site of MERC.
Fig.4. Monthly amount of radiation recorded in 2007
Fig. 5. Monthly amount of radiation recorded in 2008
Fig. 6. Monthly amount of radiation recorded in 2009
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Fig.7. Monthly amount of radiation recorded in 2010 Required appliances for a rural house can be assumed to be 20W low energy lamps, one small radio, a 14 foot fridge and a 14 inch TV. According to energy balance sheet of Iran, time usage of each mentioned items per KWh is given in Table3 . Energy consumption of these appliances with regard to operation time has been calculated and is given in column 4 of table3. Daily consumption of this rural house hold was calculated to be 2.88 KWh. TABLE III. RATE OF APPLIANCES ELECTRICAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION REQUIRED FOR A RURAL HOUSE Required utensils Time for 1KWh consumption(hr) Time- consuming equipments (hr) Consumption (KWh) Two 20W lamps 50 12 0.48 A radio 30 12 0.4 A 14 ft fridge 24 24 1 A 14" TV 12 12 1
III. RESULTS AND DISSCUTION Considering the mean daily electrical consumption of this house which is 2.88 KWh, where this energy should be supplied in the 6 hour effective day light time, therefore it is necessary to situate panels so we can produce and store 480W of electricity[9]. Hence it is required to have 11 photovoltaic panels with 45W power, to generate 12V, DC electricity. To store energy a storage battery bank has been considered, these special batteries store the excess electricity generated. Table 4 shows the technical specifications of various 12V batteries. With regard to the electricity generated, it is required to have 250Amph storage capacity. Hence 2 batteries connected in series with each having 120Amph were considered. The batterys working voltage is 12V, 64Kg weight, and dimensions of 0.5220.2380.218 m 3 . When it is required to use electricity directly from the photovoltaic panels, in order to be able to convert DC voltage to AC, a 12 Volt inverter can be used. Table 5, shows various inverters specifications. In this work 2. 700W inverter (SK700-212) of Faran Electronic Company was considered. It is important to indicate that each battery is directly connected to each inverter, and the output AC voltage of each inverter enters the electrical box panel, from there it reaches the consumer, Due to separate connection of each battery to the inverter, whenever a problem occurs in a battery or inverter, other circuit can supply and work as an auxiliary system.
IV. CONCLUSION In this work we have calculated mean energy consumption of a rural area house, situated near Meshkin-dasht of Karaj providence in Iran. Using solar data registered in this area, the required electrical energy was calculated to be 2.88KWh with available mean solar radiation of 6 hours and rate of 6250MJ/m2. According to the calculations, 11 photovoltaic panels of 45W power and 2, 12V and 120Amph batteries as well as 2, 700W inverter are required. The rural house was considered for supplying AC electricity. V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors acknowledge Mr. Jafar Asghari for his constructive advice in this research.
VI. REFFERENCES [1] Faran Electronic Company, www.farancorp.com [2] Renewable energy organization of IRAN (suna), Journal NO.9, 2008. www.suna.org.ir [3] Material and Energy Research Center(MERC), 2010, http://www.merc.ac.ir [4] Anon., 1996, "Solar Electric Building Homes with solar power", London, Greenpeace [5] Antonio Luque, Steven Hegedus. 2003, Handbook of Photovoltaic science and Engineering. [6] Anne Grete Hestnes., 2000, "Building Integration of Solar Energy Systems". [7] BRE., The use of direct current output from pv systems in buildings , 2002. 21 TABLE IV. TECHNICALSPE'CIFICATIONSOF VARIOUS 12VBATIERIES TypeofmodelE 12V- 12V- 12V- 12V- 12V- 12V- 24AH 65AB 70AH 100AH 120AH 200AH \\ieigk (Kg) 13.6 22 22.5 31 35.5 64 Bestd!.a:rge 4.2 6j 7 10 12 20 ctII"I'emt (A) :Dioemsio1llS 170);. 179): 211x 214y. 218x 166:.:. 167x 171x 176:.: 238:Y. (mm) 197 350 260 330 409 525 TABLE v. TECHNICAL DATAOFVARIOUS UVMUmRS Typeof SK200- SK10 SK1500- mooo- SKJOOO- moM 212 0-212 212 212 :212 200 700 1500 2000 3000 WeigId 13.6 22 22.5 11 35.5 (Kg) Ef6cieDcy 91 91 90 91 90 (%) Ma:rlDMlm Voltage 15,3 15,3 15,3 15,3 15.3 (VJ)C) [8] A.Zahedi., 2006, "Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy; latest developments in the building integrated and hybrid PV systems". [9] Endecon Engineering., A GUIDE TO PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) SYSTEM DESIGN AND INSTALLATION, CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION, version 1(2001). 22