2016 International Conference on Electrical Power and Energy Systems (ICEPES)
Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India. Dec 14-16, 2016
Energy Assessment of Floating Photovoltaic System
Neha Yadav Manju Gupta K. Sudhakar
Elect. & Electro. Department, Elect. & Electro. Department, Energy Centre
Oriental Institute of Sci. & Technology Oriental Institute of Sci. & Technology Maulana Azad National Inst. of Tech.
Bhopal, India Bhopal, India
[email protected] Bhopal, India
[email protected] [email protected]Abstract – The floating PV system is a new concept in energy Tamnar reservoir. Kim tarpani et al. [7] carried out techno-
technology to meet the energy needs. The proposed work integrates economic review of offshore PV systems in comparison to the
existing land based technology with a newly developed floating PV conventional marine renewable energy technologies. The same
technology. In photovoltaic system the electrical efficiency decreases author Kim Tarpani and his team proposed floating solar PV
with temperature increase. Therefore in order to achieve higher plant for Maltese islands due to the limited land availability
efficiency the PV module has to be cooled by removing the heat in
onshore.
some way. Floating panels are mounted on the high density
thermoplastic polyethylene (HDPE) blocks which can float on the The main inspiration for the floating PV panels is the land
water. In this paper the power generation efficiency of floating and scarcity which is more valuable for agriculture and growth of the
land based were analyzed. The objective of the study is to analyze crops.
and compare the performance of conventional and floating based
PV system. The system is installed with a capacity of 250 W. The
A. Concept of floating PV
system is tested under solar intensity between 125W/m2 to 945W/m2. It is a new idea to install solar photovoltaic system over water
The Current (I) - Voltage (V) curves and power (P) – Voltage (V) bodies by using floating technique. The power generation results
curves of the results were analyzed. The floating system has shown from the combination of PV plant technology and floating
greater generation efficiency as compared to conventional system. technology. This technology replaces the installation of
The study found that FPV has higher efficiency and total power photovoltaic power plants over valuable land. The floating PV
gain. The FPV system is convenient to rivers, lakes, ponds, water
plant consists of a Pontoon or separate floats, mooring system,
treatments plants etc.
solar panels and cables. As a new generation technology, it can
Keywords–Floating photovoltaic system (FPV), PV generation change the existing PV plants that are installed on top of
Efficiency, solar irradiance, Temperature farmland, woodland and buildings. Floating solar panel’s cost is
slightly higher than the ground mounted system and roof top
I. INTRODUCTION solar panels, but when it comes to shortage of land based
Photovoltaic module converts solar radiation into electrical countries that floating solar installation cost is negligible with
energy without harming the environment. Photovoltaic module production profits of useful land. The floating solar system also
performance parametrically depend on climatic condition, provides environmental benefits like prevention of evaporation of
operating electrical parameter, and design parameters such as water. Solar panels acts as roof for the water bodies, so the water
ambient temperature, solar irradiance, module temperature open will not exposed to sun and atmosphere, it adds a beneficiation
circuit voltage and short circuit current etc. A common for drinking water plants. The organic matter growth such as
photovoltaic module converts 4-17% of solar radiation into algae also will decrease, as solar panels acts as cover to water
electrical power, depending upon these above parameters. The bodies. Due to cooling effect of water on both the panels and the
high intensity of solar radiation increases the module’s equipment, all water resistance, floating solar plants are expected
temperature and at the same time decreases the efficiency of PV to deliver higher power output than conventional solar
cell. installation, and hence the return on investment is higher.
In this area of research, Mohd Syahriman Mohd Azmi et al. [1], B. Mathematical modeling of floating solar PV
Young-Kwan Choi [2],Paritosh Sharma et al. [3] and Ferrer- Photovoltaic cells are the building blocks of a PV array. These
Gisbert C et al. [4],have introduced the concept of Floating solar are made up of semiconductor materials like silicon etc. The
PV system on reservoirs and ponds. They studied the electrical voltage generated by a single solar cell is very low. So, a number
performance and power generation analysis of the floating of solar cells are connected in both series and parallel
system. Kim Tarpani and Miguel Redon Santafe [5] reviewed connections to achieve the desired output. The most common
the various projects that have been installed on the floating model used to calculate energy production in a photovoltaic cell
structure. Yashpal sahu et al. [6] studied the performance of 100 is the single diode lumped circuit model, as shown in Figure (1).
KW floating solar power plant installed at Hapcheon dam also Iph is the photo current, Is is the output current, ID is the diode
suggested the floating PV plant of capacity 2.5 MW at JPL current, and Vis the terminal voltage.
978-1-5090-2476-6/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 264
The I-V characteristics of the ideal solar cell with a single diode ܸ݉ ݉ܫ
are given by: ߟൌ൬ ൰ ൈ ͳͲͲΨ
ܵܣ
ݒݍ
ݏܫൌ ݄ܫെ ܫቀ݁ ݊݇ܶ െ ͳቁ
Where:
Where Io is the diode reverse bias saturation current, q is the
electron charge, n is the diode ideality factor, k is the Vm maximum voltage, Im maximum current, S intensity of solar
Boltzmann’s constant, and T is the cell temperature. radiation, A is the area of the cell.
The fill factor of the current – voltage characteristics of solar
cells can be calculated by using the following relation:
ܸ݉ ݉ܫ
ܨǤ ܨൌ
ܸܿݏܫ ܿ
Where:
Voc is open circuit voltage, Isc short circuit current.
The floating PV system investigated in this paper is a new
method of installation of solar PV panels utilizing water bodies
like dams, water treatment plants, reservoir etc.
Fig.1.Equivalent circuit model II. METHODOLOGY & EXPERIMENT
The short circuit current Isc is the highest value of the current A simple and well-designed floating structure is used to float the
produced by the cell. The short circuit current Isc is given by: solar panels. In floating structure HDPE (high density
polyethylene) blocks are used which is welded with aluminum
Isc = Is = Iph for V = 0 plates. Solar panel of 250W capacity is placed on this structure
and then the whole system was made to float on a artificial pond.
The Photo current Iph is given by: The latitude and longitude of location is 23° 30' N and 80° 00' E.
The specification and experimental parameters are shown in the
h ൌ ቀ ሺ ሻ ሺ െ ሻቁ ൈ table below.
Table 1: Specification of 250Wsolar PV module
The open circuit voltage Voc is the highest value of the voltage of
Product ID 2314P6015L527438
the cell. The open circuit voltage Voc is given by:
Product company name Su-Kam ®
Model area(cm2) 16094.98
ൌ ቀͳ ቁ For I = 0
0
Sensor temp( C) 22.0
The diode saturation current at the operating temperature of the Solar Irradiance (W/m2) 1000
cell is given by: Short circuit current Isc 8.735
Open circuit voltage Voc 37.2440
͵ ܧݍ
݃ ͳ ͳ
ܶܿ ቆ െ ቇ Maximum power 250W
ݐܫ ൌ ܫቆ ቇ ݁ ݊݇ ܶ ܿ ܶ ݂݁ݎ
݂ܶ݁ݎ Fill factor 77.67
Number of cell 60
Where Io is the diode saturation current at the reference
condition, Tcis the cell working temperature, Tref is the cell The experiment was conducted on a hot sunny day in the month
temperature at the reference condition, and Egis the energy band of June 2016 at MANIT-Bhopal. The module was kept at an
gap of semiconductor. angle of 23o with sunlight directly falling on its surface. The
global solar radiation incident on a horizontal surface was
The output power is given by measured using solar power meter (Model No-TM-207, Taiwan)
and its rating is 0-1999W/m2. The voltage, current, power,
ݒݍ efficiency and fill factor was measured by solar module analyzer
ܲ ൌ ܸ ቂ ܿݏܫെ ܫቀ݁ ݊݇ܶ െ ͳቁቃ (Model no-MECO-9009, India) and its rating is (Voc = 0-60V, Isc
= 0-125V). The temperature on the module surface was measured
The efficiency of the solar cell was calculated by following using an Infra-red thermometer (Ray Tek, China) and its rating is
equation: (0-5000C). All the measurements were taken with reference to a
265
common value of solar radiation. The module temperature is not 2.24% and 0.79% respectively. Figure 9 and 10 shows the
uniform along the surface. So, a set of five temperature readings comparison of Floating PV and overland PV characteristics.
were measured and averaged. The ambient temperature was also Experimental results indicate that FPV has been successful in
recorded using thermo Hygrometer (HT-3006A, China) and its increasing the power gain when compared to the overland PV. It
rating is (0-1000C). The experiments were performed on the can be seen that during daytime, temperature of floating PV
similar sunny days, while data from a particular day of the period module was lower than the overland PV module. This is obviously
were used to analyze the results .The effect of wind, temperature, estimated due to cooling effect of water resulting from the water
and other environmental factors were considered. Both FPV and surface which keeps the PV module’s temperature lower. Figure 11
land based PV module of 250 W rating was kept under sunlight
compares the efficiency of the overland PV and FPV system.
for 8 hours, from morning 9 A.M to evening 5 P.M. The open
Figure 12 compares the maximum power of the 250W land based
circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current (Isc) were measured at
specific solar radiation ranging from 125W/m2 to 945 W/m2. PV and 250W Floating based PV system
D. Power Generation performance cause Analysis through
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS analyzing temperature of PV Module
A. Analysis of physical parameter Figure 9 illustrates temperature of 250W floating and overland
The PV cell is prone to thermal degradation when the PV module. It can be seen that during daytime temperature of
temperature exceeds above a certain value and for a crystalline floating PV module was lower than overland PV module’s which
solar cell, the electrical output voltage is depending on
temperature. The ambient temperature fluctuates in the
range of 6 to 48 ºC during a year in Bhopal. The wind speed Wind Speed (m/sec)
was varying between 0.1 to 1.8 m/s with respect to time as shown 2 1.8
in Figure 2. The maximum and minimum solar radiation intensity
of experimental day was found to vary between 125-945W/m2. 1.5 1.3
Figure 3 shows the variation of solar irradiance for clear sky day
during the month of June 2016. Figure 4 shows the variation in 1 0.7
ambient temperature throughout the day. Due to cooling effect of 0.5 0.4
0.3
water, the module operating temperatures were significantly 0.5 0.1 0.1 0.2
reduced in comparison with the land based module
0
B. Analysis of electrical parameter
The efficiency is a dependent factor on the power generated
at an instant. The maximum power, delivered at each instant is
calculated from the value of Im and Vm. Figure 5, 6 shows the
current (I) – Voltage (V) curve and power (P) – Voltage (V)
characteristics respectively at maximum solar radiation intensity is capable of generating more solar power than overland.
of 945W/m2of floating PV module. Meanwhile Figure 7, 8 Figure 2: Variation of Wind Speed
exhibits the P–V and I–V curve respectively at minimum solar
radiation intensity of 125W/m2. The performance of 250W solar
module can be analyzed from the Figures 5-13. Variation of Solar Intensity(W/m2)
C. Comparative analysis between overland PV and Floating PV 1200
module 1000
Solar intensity
For a comparative analysis of the performance of 250W floating 800
PV system, the system was compared with a 250W overland PV 600
system installed at MANIT Bhopal. The analysis was carried out
for a period of 1 month (June 2016), while performance data on a 400
clear sky conditions were used for comparative analysis. To 200
compare the two systems with same capacity, “Maximum Power 0
and Efficiency of overland PV system was calculated at maximum
solar radiation and compared with the “Maximum Power and
Efficiency of floating PV system.” The maximum power and
efficiency of Overland PV and Floating PV were 166.95W,
11.63% and 168.83W, 12.42% respectively, which means that
Floating PV system’s power and efficiency value is increased up to Figure 3: Variation of Solar Intensity
266
Ambient Temperature (oC)
50 43.4 41.7
40.6 41.2 42
45
35.6 36.1 37.5 39.7
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Fig. 7: P-V curve of Floating based PV module at minimum solar intensity of
Fig.4. Variation of Ambient Temperature 125W/m2
Fig. 5: I-V curve of floating PV module at maximum solar intensity 945 W/m2 Fig. 8: I-V curve of Floating based PV module at minimum solar intensity of
125W/m2
Fig.
6: P-V curve of Floating PV module at maximum solar intensity of 945W/m2
Figure 9 (a)
267
Variation of Efficiency
14
12
10
Efficiency (%)
Efficiency
8 of
6 Overland
PV
4
2
0
Figure 9 (b)
Figure 9 (a) and 9 (b) Shows the comparison of P-V curve of floating PV and
overland PV respectively at solar intensity 945 W/m2
Figure 11, Comparison of Efficiency of overland PV and FPV
Variation of Power
180
160
140
120
Power (W)
Maximum
100
power of
80 overland
60 PV
40 Maximum
Power of
20
Floating
0 PV
Figure 10 (a)
Figure 12: Comparison of Maximum Power
Variation of Module Temperature
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Overland PV Temperature
Floating PV Temperature
Figure 10 (b)
Fig. 10(a) and 10(b) Shows the comparison of I-V curve of Floating based PV Figure 13: Comparison of module temperature between overland PV and FPV
and overland PV respectively at solar intensity 945 W/m2
268
IV. CONCLUSION [13]. Akash Kumar Shukla, K. Sudhakar, Prashant Baredar, “Exergetic
assessment of BIPV module using parametric and photonic energy
In this paper a 250W Floating PV system installed at MANIT methods: A review”, Energy and Buildings 119 (2016) 62–73.
Bhopal is experimentally studied for its electrical performance [14]. Alok Sahu, Neha Yadav, K. Sudhakar, “Floating photovoltaic power
and compared with that of the overland PV. The construction plant: A review”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Volume
and the design aspects of the system are also described in this 66, December 2016, Pages 815–824
paper. It has been verified that the generating efficiency of
floating PV system is superior by 0.79%. The average
temperature of Floating PV is low as compared to the
conventional PV module because of which Floating PV has a
better efficiency as compared to conventional PV module. The
floating PV has prospects to significantly increase the electrical
power output. Also in order to further increase the generating
efficiency, development of a solar-tracking floating PV system
that can change the azimuth and tilt angles is required .It is
expected that development of such system will open a new
chapter in the solar-energy market.
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