How to calculate or design a Solar (PV)
System? A Complete Guide
Nasir Ali
Energy System Engineer
3 articles Follow
September 21, 2020
PV panels, Inverter, Charge Controller, Battery Bank are core components of any solar
energy system. One just has to put the required values in the formulae to calculate the
all components capacity therefore designing of solar systems is not a hectic and big
deal to do.
There are following the simple steps to estimate the solar system capacity and other
designing aspects.
1. Load calculation
First of all, you should compute your day by day loads to be handle by the solar system.
For that reason, there are two strategies
I. Calculate the daily average units (energy use) by using the electric bill (average units)
II. Secondly, the LE can be calculated by using the following equation.
Le = The total electric load in KWh per day
ti = The time of operation of ith appliance per day rated power of the ith item
Fig: Calculation of energy usage per day
2. PV Panels Calculation
At the point when you are finished with load calculations, you need to assess the PV
panels maximum capacity (PVMax).
Here,
PVMax = Peak power of PV array (KWp)
LE = Electric load (kWh/d)
IP = Peak solar intensity (1 KW/m2 for all over the world)
HAvg = Average available radiation in kWh/m2/d
Check HAvg for your location as it differs for different locations.
2A. How to calculate the number of PV panels?
The number of PV panels will be according to the available power capacity per panel in
the market and very interesting to know the Trina Solar has introduced the Panels up to
600W. The number of PV panels can be easily calculated by the following formula.
Here,
Pm = Rated power of the selected panel
PVN = Number of the PV Panels
2B. How to select the type of PV panel?
There are two main types of PV panels monocrystalline and polycrystalline.
Monocrystalline (23%) are comparatively more efficient than polycrystalline (18%) but
they are more sensitive to temperature (lose their efficiency at the rate of 0.5%/C0
above than 25 C0) therefore not suitable for high-temperature sites. Be that as it may,
you don't need to stress over in light of the fact that you can pick the mix of the two
kinds to benefit both high productivity and temperature obstruction, accessible in the
market nowadays.
3. Charge Controller
If you are designing a hybrid solar system, then the charge controller is required to
control the charging and discharging of the batteries as it prevents the overcharging of
the batteries by detaching them from the solar system when completely energized.
Mostly the charge controllers are rated in terms of current (A) value which can be easily
calculated by the following equation
It is noteworthy that in modern systems the charge controllers have been eliminated
and their function is performed by the invertors.
4. Battery Bank
The battery bank is another important component in the designing hybrid solar systems
as they are used to store energy to use in the time of sun unavailability. The batteries
are quite helpful in the domain of reliability but high cost, limited life cycle, and energy
loss in the energy cycle make them unfavorable. Therefore the Grid-Tied systems
getting more attention.
There are two main types of batteries used in Pakistan one is Led-Acid batteries and Li-
Ion batteries.
Whatever the type of battery you selected. The capacity of battery of bank can be
calculated by following formula.
L = Load (W)
Cbb = Capacity of the battery bank in Ah
Dd = Depth of discharge infraction
VBat = Nominal voltage of the battery
a = Number of days for backup (in case of off stand-alone systems )
tapp = Minimum back up time in hours of the appliances
4A. How to calculate the number of batteries required?
In the wake of ascertaining the limit of the battery bank, you need to compute the
number of batteries to be associated in the arrangement an equal as indicated by
inverter specs.
Here,
BN = Number of batteries
Cbb = capacity of the battery bank (Ah)
CB = Capacity of a single battery (Ah)
5. Size Calculation of Invertor
The invertor is a device that converts the DC from panels into AC for the load. This
device should be able to handle peak load plus surge loads otherwise tripping of
invertor is not advisable at any cost. Infect, all recent development in the invertor make
the solar systems most acceptable by all corners. The excellent performance of the
hybrid system, grid-tied systems, system-related information on the mobile, and
successful net metering all are only possible due to the use of artificial intelligence in the
invertor.
The invertor is usually valued 20-25% more than the maximum solar panels capacity to
handle the losses and for safety due to inductive loads and safety factors. The efficiency
of the inverter ranges from 90% to 98%. Due to modern electronics, this is the most
efficient device in all solar system components.
Cinv = 1.2 PVMax
Here
Cinv = Capacity of invertor (KW)
If the load very inductive and VFDs are not being used, then you should consider the
surge factor also in estimating the capacity of the invertor
Cinv = 1.2 (PVMax)(Kin)
Here,
Kin = Surge factor (its value depends upon appliances, but it is taken as 2.5 for average)
The number of strings, voltage, and current per string, as well as the input, out-put
voltages all, depend upon the invertor specs and it varies from invertor to invertor type.
6. Area Required for PV Panels
Due to lower efficiency, the PV panels required comparatively more area than any other
energy source. The minimum area for the PV panels can be estimated by the following
equation but note that the area required for their spacing to avoid shading is exempted.
Here
AT = Minimum total required area for PV panels
Ap = Area per panel (dimensions can be seen on the technical list of the panel printed
on the backside of the panel)
PVN = Total number of PV panels
Furthermore, the area can be calculated by the following equation as well
7. Sizing of Electrical Cables
The size of the cables for carrying the required current and voltages is a key factor for
efficiency and safety. For the selection of cables, the current rating is more important to
consider and by rule, the current is directly proportional to the area of the cable.
Click here to find the exact area of the cable according to the current rating (A)
What Are the Most Important Softwares Used to Design Solar PV Systems?
Undoubtedly, we can design solar energy systems manually, but technological
development leads us to more accuracy and easiness. Therefore, there are many
softwares that are available to design solar systems in a superior manner. Here is a list of
the most famous software for designing and simulation of Grid-Tied, Hybrid, and Stand
Alone.
You can download and explore them by just clicking on them.
1. PV Syst
2. PV Sol
3. Sketch Up
4. Solar Pro
5. Homer Pro
Hope this is will help to design solar systems for your home, industry by yourself.
You are most welcome with any sort of question as well as suggestion plz reach me
through
e-mail ([email protected]).
