Solar photovoltaic practice problems

Fall 2017, TD 607

1. What is the areal power density of solar radiation at Standard Test Conditions (STC)?
What else defines STC?

2. How much power does a panel rated for 230W generate when AM 1.5 radiation is
incident on it at normal incidence (i.e. at right angle)? Or in other words, what does
power rating of a panel signify?

3. It is stated that (on an average) the solar resource of a certain location is 5kWh/m2/day
at 22 south facing. What is the total solar energy incident on a 1 m2 panel mounted at
the same angle in a day?

4. Solar resource is measured in kWh/m2/day. What does solar resource mean? What are
some of the ways of measuring solar resource?

5. How much energy does a 100W panel generate in one day, mounted at the location in
problem 3 and at the given angle?

6. If there is a requirement of 3 kWh of energy per day from solar photovoltaics, what
rating of panel should be mounted in a location with 5 kWh/m2/day solar resource?
What if we want to take care of back up for one additional day in case there is cloudy
weather?

7. If in the above problem, we need to also provide batteries to store the energy
generated in one day, what would the battery capacity be in kWh, considering a depth
of discharge of 75%.

8. What if the battery above had an efficiency of 85%? What should the rating of the panel
be, taking this new information into consideration, and what should the battery capacity
be?

9. A home lighting system of 2 CFL bulbs rated at 15 W each need to run for 4 hours per
day, and a cell phone charger rated at 5W needs to run for 2 hours per day. What kind
of a solar PV system would you design? Add capacity of one extra day of back up,
assume a battery efficiency of 85%, and design for a depth of discharge of 65%.

10. A PV system in a remote village needs to power up:

In a school for 8 hours a day- one computer (200W), 2 fans (70W each)
In 40 homes for 4 hours a day 2 CFL bulbs (15W each)
Street lights for 12 hours a day 12 CFL bulbs (18W each)

a. What is the minimum photovoltaic panel rating required if the average solar resource is
4 kWh/m2/day?

b. Since the school runs in the daytime, the battery requirement for those systems is
reduced by 20% of the total energy requirement. What is the total battery requirement
 for a depth of discharge of 60%, and no backup days. Assume a battery efficiency of
90%, an inverter efficiency of 90%, and losses in the lines of 3%.

c. How many batteries of the given specifications will be required: 12V, 150 Ah?

d. If on an average, in the actual implementation, the loading is only 80% of what was
initially estimated, then how long will the batteries last (consider the number of
batteries you have calculated)? Use lifetime data given below.
No. of cycles

Depth of discharge

11. From the figure below, find the energy a 100W panel would generate over the day.
Discretize in 1 hour increments. Assume constant efficiency (as measured at STC) over
this period.
Solar Irradiance,W/m2
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
12:00:00 AM 6:00:00 AM 12:00:00 PM 6:00:00 PM 12:00:00 AM

12. What is the function of

a. A charge controller
b. A Maximum Power Point Tracker
c. An inverter
13. A 5HP pump requires PV panels with a total rating of 5 kW to run. If the efficiency of
the panels being used is 17%, realistically how much land area is required for the
installation? State any assumptions.