COST-EFFECTIVE DESIGN OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM FOR A REMOTE AREA

Abstract

Energy is vital for healthy and dynamic rural growth, which can arrest the socio-political friction emanating from the mass migration of rural population to the urban centers. Rural development requires upgrading the overall basic living environment of the life. Also there is a need to promote intensive adoption of conservation measures and effective use of renewable sources of energy. Among various renewable alternatives, photovoltaics exhibit a right degree of compatibility with the geographical, climatic and socio-economic features of India. There is a highly scattered energy demand pattern, coupled with techno-economic constraints of providing conventional electricity to a large number of remote and difficult terrain. i Meeting the electricity needs of remotely located rural areas with no access of grid electricity in cost-effective manner is the most challenging task. In addition, the conservation of precious fossil fuels and local resources would further minimize the ecological imbalances and at the same time, reduce the over dependence on imports of primary energies, particularly oil, which also entails high transthission costs and pollution problems. In all the energy projects, it is a necessity to choose the most economical energy supply option for a given requirement. The application areas and the use of SPV power systems are increasing all over the world including India. The cost-effective design of solar PV system allows the analysis of the capital and operating costs of the technical solution to the electric power delivery problem. It is, therefore, proposed to carryout a cost-effective design of Solar PV system for a remote area where energy consumption is taken in agricultural, industrial, water supply, domestic and community sectors. In the present study the system is designed based upon the average solar insolation data of India so that the approach of the study may be applied to other areas. Various components of SPV system have been studied and components that are sensitive to cost are identified. The sizing of SPV systems for agricultural, water supply, industrial, domestic and community loads has been carried out separately and it was found especially in the case of domestic load that the use of centralized mode for power generation is cheaper than the decentralized mode. The cost analysis of various individual systems has indicated that the cost of energy is Rs. 22.9 per kWh for agricultural and small scale industry followed by drinking water supply (Rs. 23.6 per kWh) and centralized domestic lighting (Rs. 31.4 per kWh) as compared to the generation cost of Rs. 43.6 per kWh in the case of decentralized SPV power plant.