Nitionnll'owcr and Energy Conference (PECon) 2003 Proceedings, Eangi, Malaysia

268
Design and Proper Sizing of Solar Energy
Schemes for Electricity Production in Malaysia
Musse Mohamud Ahmed, Member, IEEE, and Marizan Sulaiman
Ahuruc/--As solar energy is a part of widely recognized
renewable energy sources; the solar cnergy source is free of
cost alHl clean energy whereby envir.onmental
i
mpacts are
negligibll. In tropical countries like Malaysia, solar energy
potential has been utilized in wide range of applications of
remote allli urban areas and has been growig rapidly. There
are also new research interests shown by the universities and
R&D institutions to assess the solar energy application
potential in Malaysia for proper utilization. But it has not fully
utilized until recently. 1I0wever the main problems limiting
solar utilization are the use of costly equipment and the
selection of wrong peak sunshine data that results wnmg sizing
of e(juipment for the solar energy projects. For instance, peak
sunshine and insolation fgures in daily, weekly and yearly
basis of the same location are different from one data to
another if accuracy of the solar energy data is compromised.
This is because the data available is based on average with
yearly basis, which has nothing to do with actual data available
in a specific place and a specifC date. It is therefore, very
important to form proper design pro
c
edures and solar energy
cumponents sizing to do eud calculations for the solar power
production before opting any actual implementation of solar
energy scheme. Universal and local data will be compared to
come up with the required peak sunshine figures in order to get
the exact amount sunshine in a P!rticular zone and in a
particular day. The problems involved in right sizing and using
the right data are the key success to solar energy applications,
improve its performances and reduce ullnecessary costs. for
that reason, carrying out proper design & sizing procedures for
practical solar energy schemes are necessary. In this work,
proper design procedures and system sizing are the main focus.
Moreover, proper design procedures are proposed and
supporting facts and fgures are presented.
KeywQrts--Solar Energy, Solar Insolation, Energy
COllsumption, Solar Panel Sizing and Peak Sunshine FigUres
L INTRODUCTION
Every thing human do and practice has advantages and
advantages. As for solar energy utilization is concered, it is
pertinelll that it has a lot of advantages and disadvantages
when it comes to compare other energy sources. The
fundamental issue of utilizing solar energy is not a matter of
lack of other sources of energy but it is a matter of
enviroJmlental concern as some conventional energy sources
contribute high emissions to the environments. It is therefore
very important to do all the necessary arrangements to
compare the pros and cons of solar energy utilization before
embarking any significant scheme for power generation
Musse Mohamud Ahmed and Marizan Sulaiman are wilh faculty of
Ekclrical Engineering, Kolej Univctsiti Tknikal Kebangsaan Malaysia
(KUTKM) Locked Bag 1200 Ayer Kcroh 75450, Mclaka, Malaysia, Fax:
06062332406, Tel: 0606 233 2412 (e-mail: ,,,,,,,,'!,:kulidn.cdll.IllY).
07803-8208-0103/$17.00 2003 IEEE.
purposes if other sources of energy are abundant. This
environmental concer and the reaction of oil crisis in 19705
and subsequent hiccups of high oil prices in the international
markets have exacerbated energy managers, energy users
and researchers to look into other sources of energy such as
renewable energy including solar energy. In 1995, the
estimated annual worldwide shipments of photovoltaic
modules by manufacturers were approximately 80
megawatts (MWp) with annual PV industry sales of 1.4
billion dollar mark for complete system. In comparison,
about 230 MWp were shipped in 1985, meaning to say that
the industry has grown over 300 % in 10 years. This growth
has lead to an installed base of PV power generation
capacity of more than 500 MWp worldwide [l), [2J.
In tropical countries, solar energy potential in wide range
of applications of remote and urban areas is growing rapidly.
There are also new research interests shown by the
universities and R&D institutions to assess the solar energy
application potential in these countries for proper utilization.
Since solar energy depends on solar presence in a particular
zone, correct and accurate information from the sun,
seasonal changes of the solar energy and the amount of solar
energy received from the sun are necessary to be evaluated
and the basic prameters of solar energy system are needed
to be as accurate as possible. This paper presents forming
practical and standard guidelines for feasibil ity studies, solar
development studies, solar engineering studies and selecting
solar energy equipment while implementing any viable solar
energy scheme. It describes the best steps necessary to take
into account for implementing practical solar scheme
successfully. It discusses complete analysis of practical
evaluations of all factors, which involve practical solar
energy scheme in terms of assessment, application design,
effective energy production [1), [21.
II. SUNSHINE DATA AND SOLAR PANEL ENERG Y
PRODUCTION
The output of a solar panel is commonly expressed in
watts, and the wattage is determined by multiplying the rated
voltage by the rated current for example, a 12 V, 60 W solar
panel measuring in inches of "20 X 44" has a rated voltage
of 17.1 V a rated current of 3.5A which is, V (volts) x A
(amps)=W(watts), 17.1 VX.5A=60W
If an average of 6 hours of peak sun per day is available in
an area, then the above solar panel can produce an average
of 360 watt-hour of power per day; 60W X 6 hrs. = 360
Whrs. Since the intensity of sunlight contacting the solar
panel varies throughout the day, the term "peak sun hours" is
used as a method to smooth out the variations into a daily
average. Early moring and late-in-theday sunlight
produces less power than the mid-day sun [I), [2), [3).
Naturally, cloudy days will produce less power than bright
sunny days as well. When planning a solar power system the
geographical area is rated in average peak sun hours per day
based on yearly sun data. Although Average peak sun hours
for various geographical areas arc known but it is very
important to exactly utilize the daily peak SUII hours ill a
particular zone in a particular period [I J. This will do away
(Y daily planning which could be based 011 assumption of
the former data while ignoring the exact data available in (he
particular day at the particular zone.
Solor panels can be wire in series or in parullel 10
increase voltage or current respectively, and they can be
wired both in series and in parallel to increase bOlh volts and
amps. Series wiring refers (0 eonnecling Ihe positive
terminal of one ponel to the negative terminal or anolhcr.
The resulting outer positive and negative tenninals will
produce voltage the sum onhe two panels, but the current
sta
y
s the same as one panel. So two 12vo1t/3.5 amp panels
wired in series produces 24 V at 3.5 A. Four of these wired
in series would produce 48 Vat 3.5 A. Parallel wifing rerers
to connecting positive terminals to posi tive terminals. and
negative to negative. The result is that voltage sta
y
s the
same, but current becomes the sum or the number of panels.
So two, 12V/3.5A panels wired in paral lel would produce 12
V at 7 A. Four panels' would produce 12 V at 14 A.
Series/parallel wiring refers to doing both of the above -
increasing volts and amps to achieve the desired system
voltage as in 24 or 48 V systems. Fig. I shows this part. In
addition to that, the rour panels can then be wired in parallel
to another four and so on to make a larger array.
Two 12v/3.5 panels in series and 11'0 in parallel. This doubles
the .. oltge ad doubles the aps to make 24 volts and 7 amps.
Fig. l. Series and Parallel Solar Punels
As a rule-of-thumb each so-called peak-Watt (Wp) of solar
panel power can deliver around 4 -5 walt-hours of energy
per day in tropical countries like Malaysia. Therefore a
40Watt solar panel would supply about 40 x 4 = 160Watt
hours per day. As a further example, an arra
y
of 10 x 50W =
500 solar panels can provide 500 X 4 = 2000 Watt-hours per
day.
A. Energ Consumption of Appliances / Loads
The energy requirement of consumers are determined when
the power consumption of each appliances (light, TV set,
radi o, refrigerator, etc.) and the number of hours per day
used by each appliance are kow. If more energy is used
than is produced in a given time, the energy stored in the
battery or batteries will run out. One or the most important
factors to consider is input power consumption the appliance
needs along the losses of the appliance for the purose of
designing the solar system. For example: A "800Watt"
microwave oven requires much more input power than
800W; the 800W in this instance commonly refers to the
power the appliance produces at the "output" i.e. microwave
power it produces to cook food. It is required therefore to
add 5% extra power loss to lhe 800W, which comes out of
269
840W. Table 1 shows the amount of energy or watt-hour
needed for a house, shop or any residential or commcrcinl
place. It gives a complele pict ure of a system-sizing example
of a solar power SChl!ll11. It is based un complele puwer
consumption workshect for a 1:1i rl y typicnl household energy
requirement. The idea is to exactly decide and calculate thc
energy CUIlUlIIpliol1 rCluirclltcnlllfa !ypkal household. ThL'
accurate practice of household power consumption mllst he
taken into <ccount and technical and practical requirement of
: huusehold's power IIS,lgC IIll1S! bc tilld Ollt. Filiall y, prin's
of calculated energy consumplioll must be carried out ror
any practical soJar energy based scheme applications.
"l"AIIII'1
AVI'HA(}E I'OW"R ('ONSUMI'TION OF ('OM1fN AI'I' I . I ANl 'I'S
AI'I'LjAN('E WAITS IIOlJR/WEI,K WAIT-
IIOIJ/WEEK
IIlcndcr 300 0.5 1511
CD player 35 5 175
Cock'rdio I (68 I(,R
Collccmaker 1000 10 tO,OOO
Computer 125 14 1750
Dryer (gas) 350 2 700
rum ace blower 700 21 14.7()O
Garage door opener 350 1 350
I lair dryer 1200 I 1200
Iroll 1000 0.5 500
Microwave 1500 1 ISOO
Printer; laser 400 I 400
I{eliigerator (20cl) 150 70 10.500
18" satellite Jisl, 30 10 JOO
Toaster 1200 I 1200
TV - 25" color ISO 14 2100
Vacuum cleaner 1000 0.5 500
VCR 40 4 1(,0
Washing machine 500 I 500
Lights;
42W halogen 42 7 2<)4
25W Compo Flour. (I bulb 2
hrslduy. I buill 4 hrs/day, I 28 49 1372
bulb I hr/day)
48.51917 = 693 I
B. System Al1alysis
It is approximately needed 30 panels of 75-watt capacity
and 24 units of L-I 6 batteries to rn a da i I y load 0 f 6931-
wltt hours. This makes this system a fairly large one. At thi s
point ortime, it would be better to look back and assess once
more the household's power consumption and fgllre out
ways to reduce the power consumption.
With another look at the example, it can be seen that three
items contribute large amollnt of energy because of their
high wattage capacity in power consumption, the furnace
blower at 14,700-walt hours per week, the coffee maker at
10,OOO-watt hours per week, and the refrigerator at I O,500
watt hours pef week. The calfee maker can be replaced with
an alterative method of making colTee. The furace blower
can be replaced with a wood stove, with heaters that don't
use blowers or with a more energy emcien! heating system.
This would be a good time for solar energy designers to
consider using a passive solar approach (When building a
new home, energy effcient design can drastically reduce the
need for heating and cooling). The other large power
consumer in the house is the refrigerator. [n this case it is
already a fairly energy efcient model, so in order to lower
the amount of electricity used in this household, it could be
selected to a small sized one (7.8 cubic f.) propane
relrigerator, or small (11.5 cubic ft.) DC refrigerator [5].
10wever, if the cost of the new pr.oposed refrigerator is
higher than the current one refrigerator it may not be
possible for the householder to consider buying the latter
one.
By excluding the furace blower and coffee maker items
from the house load, it is reduced to 3403-watt hours per
day, which rcquires about 16 modules of 75-watt capacity,
and 20 battery units ofT-lOS type or 12 units of L-16 type
balteries.
c em'/ Estimates
Cost is an important factor when considering the sizing of
solar power system to purchase. [n this case, several options,
must be takcn to get a system that will run the original house
load of 6931 watt hours per day, to' eliminate the coffee
maker, to eliminate the furace blower, and to eliminate the
refrigemtor in order to reduce the size of the system To
decide which option is best, it is needed to consider the cost
of using an alternate source of heat and replacing the current
refrigerator with smaller one while comparing to the cost of
the solar modules. For the 3D-module system, the cost would
be about $20,000*. By reducing the system to 16 modules,
the price drops to $13 ,000*. The cost difference between
these two systems should outweigh the cost of finding an
alterate source of heating. The next consideration is the
refrigerator. As mentioned above, replacing the refrigerator
can reduce the amount of energy used. However, other
factors, such as size and the cost of a new refrigerator, may
outweigh the benefts.
*Note: These are approximate prices. They do not include
the cost of installation. The installation cost may be
calculated in using man-hour method.
II. SELECTI ON OF BATTERIES
The selection of solar energy components is the next step
of designing the required solar energy project in hand after
knowing the estimated peak sunshine data at the location of
the project. The selection of the aforesaid components
depends on afer proper planning has been done. The
accuracy of sizing of solar energy components must be as
correct as possible. However, selection of battery ampere
hour is one of the most important. one for solar energy
components selection and will be discussed in the following
part.
.
A. Slll/fl), Ampere Hour Selectiol/
Other than perhaps solar water pumps and grid-connected
systems, solar systems usually use batteries to store the
energy produced by the solar panels. The appliances in tur
270
draw energy from the batteries, either directly (for 12Vdc,
24Vdc, 36Vdc and higher DC voltage appliances /loads) or
through inverters, which convert the battery voltage to the
required AC voltage of the appliance (220V or 110V etc)
A number of factors determine battery choice and size,
but for purose of this discussion, a determining
considnation is that the battery should be sized so that the
normal daily "draw-down" on it's capacity should be less
than 20%. E.g. A nominal 100Amp-hour battery should not
be discharged by more than 20% on a daily/nightly basis.
That means 20Amp-hour capacity withdrawal per day/night,
which translates to 240Watt-hours of energy withdrawal for
a 12V battery (amp-hours
'
x battery voltage = Watt-hours)
Of course, deeper discharges may and do occur (e.g. bad
weather spells, intermittent high loading), but these should
be occasional events, after which it is very important to
permit the battery to recover to full charge as soon as
possible.
In a solar application, battery life is highly dependent on
the number and depth of discharge cycles the battery is
subjected to. [n this regard, it should be noted that diferent
types of batteries have different "cycling" capabilities: a car
type battery can probably withstand 60-100 deep (80%)
discharges, 12V bloc GEL-type batteries are designed for
400-500 deep (80%) discharges and so on.
One of the biggest problems in solar energy equipment
design is misquoting the relationship between amps and
amp-hour requirements of 240-volt AC items versus the
effects on their DC low voltage batteries. Take an example
of a 24V nominal system powering a load of 3 amps,
240V AC, which has a duty cycle of 4 hours per day. You
would have a l2-amp hour load (3A X 4 hrs=12 Ah).
However, in order to detennine the true drain on your
batteries you have to divide your nominal battery voltage
(24V) into the voltage of the load(240V), which is 10, and
then multiply this times your amp hours (12 Ah). So in this
case the calculation would be 120 Ah drained from your
batteries - not the 12 Ah. There are other factors for
determining the full extent of the battery drain, such as
temperature, start-up factors, etc., but this is very helpful of
getting a more complete picture on how to size a specifc
low voltage batteries when powering specifc loads using an
inverter operated in a specifc voltage (e.g. 240V AC). This
work proposes to take all the above factors into
considerations.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Orientation of a solar array is best at te south. Tre
south is slightly different than a magnetic reference or
compass south. The more an array is situated off of true
south the less the total insolation value. A quick way to
detennine solar south is to divide the span of time between
sunrise and sunset in half The position of the sun at the
resulting time would be true solar south [IJ, [2J, [3J, [4], [5J,
[6]. Solar Peak Sunshine data will be discussed and
evaluated in the following part in this regard.
A. The Local Peak SUIshine Dala
To calculate watt-hour energy produced by a given solar
panel using local peak sunshine, the local sunshine data must
be available then comparison to the geographical data is
271
possible. This will lead to select and design the rest of the
solar energy system such as batteries, charge controllers,
inverters, wiring and cabling systems etc. However, the
comparison between geographical data and local peak r
I
]
sunshine data is presented in this paper. The following
[21
comparison will be made. Comparison between the )3J
V. REFERENCES
Event Ilori.on, Advanced Energy Group authori7."O dealer. Michigall.
USA.
Previous Experiences n'om lhe authors.
estimated local peak sunshine data to that of geographical
data is illustrated in Table 2.
TABLE 2
PEAK SUNSHINE DATA COMPARISON BETWEEN
LOCAL & GEOGRAPHCAL [4], [5J, [6J
Country Estimated General Data ArprOK. DilYerene
Local Data Ical e
Selected
Data
Syslem DCIAC DC/AC DCIAC DC/AC
Malaysia 6.766/5.0 7.794/5.76 7/5 1.0280/0.
76
Indonesia 6.76615.00 7.7915.76 7/5 1.0280/0.
76
Brunei 6.76615.00 7.7915.76 7/5 1.028010.
76
Singapore 6.76615.00 7.79/5.76 7/5 1.0280/0.
76
Peak Sunshine Solar Resource Data
'
j
' o . t 1 8 _
mSil1gaporc
0. Indoncsi;l
2 3 4 5 6 7
--Bnll1ci
Countries
Fig. 2. Peak Sunshine or Four Counlries
The data shown in Fig, 2 is based on two peak sunshine
values, i.e. DC peak sunshine value and AC peak sunshine
value. The DC peak sunshine value is normally higher than
that of AC peak sunshine values. From Fig. 2, Four South
Asian Countries have taken as case study. These countries
are Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei. Since their
Peak Sunshine data are same, it is not required to show same
data in separate lines representing each country on the graph.
That is why there is only one common line in Figure 2. From
these data, estimated values of the local data are needed
instead of using geographical data. Between 6-7 for DC and
4-5 for AC are the estimated values for local peak sunshine
data in these four countries. However, the conventional
appliances work with AC voltage system and for that reason
AC peak sunshine data (4-5) is to be selected.
141
Robers, S. !lI . Solar Electricily: A praclical U,"uc to iJesignill!
and Installing Small Photov(lwic Systems, 434 p. Prclltice lIall
Interational, UK.
RETScrecll Natural Rcsourws. I'hotoV<1llaic H>I 5 Lioneliloulet
Blvd., Canada
151
EV Sot.,. rroducts & SlIllny Solar,
2655 N. Ilighway 89, Chinu Valley, AZ 8r.323
I
lh: 1)2-/.J/,22()1 "'x: 92R./,)r,1 (,(,.
e'l11ail: illl',@evsular.com, 200]
[61 M.M. Ahmed. M. Sulairnan," Practical Ouidc1illes of S"IJr Encry
Schemes in Tropical Countries", 2325 Seplember 2003, 110 Chi
Minh City, Vielnam.
lu,.'. 1loh.,,,,,,1 Ahmed gol his B.Se.
in Eleclrical Engineering from Somali
Natiollal University in 1')84. Ilc oblaillcu
his M.Sc. in Electrical l'olVer
Engineering lrolll Un iversily of
Engineering and TeChnology, Peshawar,
Pakistan in 19')(,. lie did ilis l'h.D. in
Eleelrical Power Enginccrin at t
he
Universiti Tcknologi Malaysia (UTM) in
2000. Currently, he is a lecturer and
deputy dean of postgraduate & research
in Ihe Faculty ,'f Eleclrical Engineering at
Kolcj Universili Tcknikal Kebangsaan
Maloysia (KUTKM). I lis rescarei, interests incl"de: I "rgo Scale Powcr
System Optimizations. Economic Disputeh, Unit Commitment.
/lilici,,1 tnlclligellcc A[lfliic"lions '" Powcr Sy'te"",. Tr;lIl.slllissilln &
Dislribution system, !'ower Quulity and ECllrgy und Renewnble Energy.
lie is a IIlcmher "r IITFlI'ES ,,,ciely.
Igr;l.n Sulalm.n is a rrofessor ami
dean of lhe Faculty of Eleelrical
Engineering at Koicj lini"cr,;li Teknikal
Kchallgsa1l Matysiu. lie uilttlnctl
I.Sc. ill Eleelrical Ellginering in I'IR4
liol11 the University of Miss,,"ri, USA
and M'sc. in Electric.1 Engineering in
l'IR5 li'oll1 II," lillivcr. ,il) ,,( Miss""ri,
USA. lie gol his Ph,D, ill Flcc(rical
Engineering in 191N frm the university of Miss""ri, USA. I'mI'. Mari,,"
has held various administrative alld academic posts including the dcplily
dean of academic and students' development al the departll1ent of
Electrical Engineering, University Sains Malaysia (USM), Prllang.
Professor Marizan was wilh the USM, I'enang as "" academic stal nn
various teaching assignments ranging from teaching assislance to associa'c
professor from 1988-2002. He has published 5 books, authored and co
authored 18 joumal articles and authored and co-authored 22 coMerellCc
papers. !is interests include power systems & control, energy efciency
systems, instrumentation & aulomation and E-Icaring in engineering
education; he is a member of IEM.