Effect of Different Solar Radiation Data Sources on the Variation of Techno-Economic Feasibility of PV Power System

^a Energy and Building Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Safat 13109, Kuwait
^b Center of Research Excellence in Renewable Energy (CoRe-RE), Research Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
^c The School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
^d Solar Energy Research Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author e-mail: dr.alghoul@gmail.com

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the variation in techno-economic feasibility of PV power system under different data sources of solar radiation. HOMER simulation tool is used to predict the techno-economic feasibility parameters of PV power system in Baghdad city, Iraq located at (33.3128° N, 44.3615° E) as a case study. Four data sources of solar radiation, different annual capacity shortages percentage (0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5), and wide range of daily load profile (10-100 kWh/day) are implemented. The analyzed parameters of the techno-economic feasibility are COE ($/kWh), PV array power capacity (kW), PV electrical production (kWh/year), No. of batteries and battery lifetime (year). The main results of the study revealed the followings: (1) solar radiation from different data sources caused observed to significant variation in the values of the techno-economic feasibility parameters; therefore, careful attention must be paid to ensure the use of an accurate solar input data; (2) Average solar radiation from different data sources can be recommended as a reasonable input data; (3) it is observed that as the size and of PV power system increases, the effect of different data sources of solar radiation increases and causes significant variation in the values of the techno-economic feasibility parameters.