Rooftop photovoltaic

power station

A rooftop photovoltaic power station, or

rooftop PV system, is a photovoltaic
system that has its electricity-generating
solar panels mounted on the rooftop of a
residential or commercial building or
structure.[1] The various components of
such a system include photovoltaic
modules, mounting systems, cables, solar
inverters and other electrical
accessories.[2]

Rooftop PV systems around the world: Chicago,

United States (top-right), Berlin, Germany (middle)
and Kuppam, India (bottom-right)

Rooftop mounted systems are small

compared to ground-mounted photovoltaic
power stations with capacities in the
megawatt range. Rooftop PV systems on
residential buildings typically feature a
capacity of about 5 to 20 kilowatts (kW),
while those mounted on commercial
buildings often reach 100 kilowatts or
more.

Installation

Rooftop PV systems at Googleplex, California

The urban environment provides a large

amount of empty rooftop spaces and can
inherently avoid the potential land use and
environmental concerns. Estimating
rooftop solar insolation is a multi-faceted
process, as insolation values in rooftops
are impacted by the following:

Time of the year

Latitude
Weather conditions
Roof slope
Roof aspect
Shading from adjacent buildings and
vegetation[3]

There are various methods for calculating

potential solar PV roof systems including
the use of Lidar[4] and orthophotos.[5]
Sophisticated models can even determine
shading losses over large areas for PV
deployment at the municipal level.[6]

Feed-in tariff mechanism

In a grid connected rooftop photovoltaic
power station, the generated electricity
can sometimes be sold to the servicing
electric utility for use elsewhere in the grid.
This arrangement provides payback for the
investment of the installer. Many
consumers from across the world are
switching to this mechanism owing to the
revenue yielded. A public utility
commission usually sets the rate that the
utility pays for this electricity, which could
be at the retail rate or the lower wholesale
rate, greatly affecting solar power payback
and installation demand.

The FIT as it is commonly known has led

to an expansion in the solar PV industry
worldwide. Thousands of jobs have been
created through this form of subsidy.
However it can produce a bubble effect
which can burst when the FIT is removed.
It has also increased the ability for
localised production and embedded
generation reducing transmission losses
through power lines.[2]
Hybrid systems

Rooftop PV hybrid system.

A rooftop photovoltaic power station

(either on-grid or off-grid) can be used in
conjunction with other power components
like diesel generators, wind turbines,
batteries etc. These solar hybrid power
systems may be capable of providing a
continuous source of power.[2]
Advantages
Installers have the right to feed solar
electricity into the public grid and hence
receive a reasonable premium tariff per
generated kWh reflecting the benefits of
solar electricity to compensate for the
current extra costs of PV electricity.[2]

Disadvantages
An electrical power system containing a
10% contribution from PV stations would
require a 2.5% increase in load frequency
control (LFC) capacity over a conventional
system - in issue which may be countered
by using synchronverters in the DC/AC-
circuit of the PV system. The break-even
cost for PV power generation was in 1996
found to be relatively high for contribution
levels of less than 10%. Higher proportions
of PV power generation gives lower break-
even costs, but economic and LFC
considerations imposed an upper limit of
about 10% on PV contributions to the
overall power systems.[7]

Technical Challenges
There are many technical challenges to
integrating large amounts of rooftop PV
systems to the power grid. For example:

Reverse Power Flow

The electric power grid was not
designed for two way power flow at the
distribution level. Distribution feeders
are usually designed as a radial system
for one way power flow transmitted over
long distances from large centralized
generators to customer loads at the end
of the distribution feeder. Now with
localized and distributed solar PV
generation on rooftops, reverse flow
causes power to flow to the substation
and transformer, causing significant
challenges. This has adverse effects on
protection coordination and voltage
regulators.
Ramp rates
Rapid fluctuations of generation from
PV systems due to intermittent clouds
cause undesirable levels of voltage
variability in the distribution feeder. At
high penetration of rooftop PV, this
voltage variability reduces the stability
of the grid due to transient imbalance in
load and generation and causes voltage
and frequency to exceed set limits if not
countered by power controls. That is,
the centralized generators cannot ramp
fast enough to match the variability of
the PV systems causing frequency
mismatch in the nearby system. This
could lead to blackouts. This is an
example of how a simple localized
 rooftop PV system can affect the larger
power grid. The issue is partially
mitigated by distributing solar panels
over a wide area, and by adding storage.

Cost
Residential PV system prices (2013)
Country Cost ($/W)

Australia 1.8

China 1.5

France 4.1

Germany 2.4

Italy 2.8

Japan 4.2

United Kingdom 2.8

United States 4.9

For residential PV systems in 2013[8]:15

Commercial PV system prices (2013)
Country Cost ($/W)

Australia 1.7

China 1.4

France 2.7

Germany 1.8

Italy 1.9

Japan 3.6

United Kingdom 2.4

United States 4.5

For commercial PV systems in 2013[8]:15

In the mid-2000s, solar companies used

various financing plans for customers
such as leases and power purchase
agreements. Customers could pay for their
solar panels over a span of years, and get
help with payments from credits from net
metering programs. As of May 2017,
installation of a rooftop solar system
costs an average of $20,000. In the past, it
was more expensive.[9]

Utility Dive wrote, "For most people, adding

a solar system on top of other bills and
priorities is a luxury" and "rooftop solar
companies by and large cater to the
wealthier portions of the American
population."[9]

Most households that get solar arrays are

"upper middle-income". The average
household salary for solar customers is
around $100,000.[9]

However, "a surprising amount of low-

income" customers appeared in a study of
income and solar system purchases.
"Based on the findings of the study, GTM
researchers estimate that the four solar
markets include more than 100,000
installations at low-income properties."[9]

Future prospects
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar
Mission of the Indian government is
planning to install utility scale grid-
connected solar photovoltaic systems
including rooftop photovoltaic systems
with the combined capacity of up to 100
gigawatts by 2022.[10]
See also
Building-integrated photovoltaics
List of rooftop photovoltaic installations
Maximum power point tracker
Photovoltaic power station
Solar cable
Solar inverter
Solar shingles
Solar tracker

References
1. Armstrong, Robert (12 November 2014).
"The Case for Solar Energy Parking Lots" .
Absolute Steel. Retrieved 15 November
2014.
2. "Photovoltaic power generation in the
buildings. Building integrated photovoltaic–
BIPV" (PDF). bef-de.org. Retrieved
2011-06-20.
3. "Energy Resources and Resource
Criteria" . greenip.org. Retrieved
2011-06-20.
4. Ha T. Nguyen, Joshua M. Pearce, Rob
Harrap, and Gerald Barber, "The Application
of LiDAR to Assessment of Rooftop Solar
Photovoltaic Deployment Potential on a
Municipal District Unit ", Sensors, 12, pp.
4534-4558 (2012).
5. L.K. Wiginton, H. T. Nguyen, J.M. Pearce,
"Quantifying Solar Photovoltaic Potential on
a Large Scale for Renewable Energy
Regional Policy", Computers, Environment
and Urban Systems 34, (2010) pp. 345-357.
[1] Open access
6. Nguyen, Ha T.; Pearce, Joshua M. (2012).
"Incorporating shading losses in solar
photovoltaic potential assessment at the
municipal scale" . Solar Energy. 86 (5):
1245–1260.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2012.01.017 .
7. Asano, H.; Yajima, K.; Kaya, Y. (Mar 1996).
"Influence of photovoltaic power generation
on required capacity for load frequency
control" . IEEE Transactions on Energy
Conversion. IEEE Power & Energy Society.
11 (1): 188–193. doi:10.1109/60.486595 .
ISSN 0885-8969 . Retrieved 2011-07-20.
8. http://www.iea.org (2014). "Technology
Roadmap: Solar Photovoltaic Energy" (PDF).
IEA. Archived from the original on 7
October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
9. Shallenberger, Krysti (2017-04-27). "Is
rooftop solar just a toy for the wealthy?" .
Utility Dive. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
10. "POWER TO THE PEOPLE-Investing in
Clean Energy for the Base of the Pyramid in
India" (PDF). pdf.wri.org. Retrieved
2011-06-20.
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