1. Lesson 16 22.525 Nov 5, 2015

2. Reminders

3.  Collect HW#5 and Review Solutions  Lecture: PVSyst Tutorial Agenda

4. PVSyst Tutorial 22.525 Nov 5, 2015

5.  After opening PVSyst, the home screen appears. If you already have a saved file, you would open it up now.  The four main options are:  Preliminary Design: start here if you want a quick analysis of a project  Project Design: full-fledged project design  Databases: weather and system components—very complete  Tools: Whole bunch of interesting data can be plotted, put into a table, etc. Getting Started

6.  Click on Tools, then select “Electrical behavior of PV arrays”  Select tab “Array with shaded cells”  Select a module (pick SunPower SPR-X21-255)  Leave 80% for shading ratio, enter “9” for number of modules in series, “1” for parallel  Leave “0” for diode protection  Leave “only one cell” for “shaded cells distribution” Tools

7. Result: Note that Max-power drops By 11% for entire String with just One cell shaded!

8.  Now try changing the number of shaded cells in one module to 10 and see the impact!  Now add bypass diodes and see the improvement  Note how you can display either P vs. V or I vs. V Shading Tool, con’t

9.  Select United Kingdom, then Cambridge  Then select “sun’s height” and click on “graph” button  This will give you the sun’s height in degrees above horizon (aka solar altitude angle) vs. legal (i.e., local) time of day  Summer and winter soltice dates are given, as well as four other “paths” for complimentary dates Try Tables/Graphs of Solar Parameters

17.  Click on Grid Connected  Then first select “Site and Meteo”  Pick Boston from drop down list. Note how file name changes to “Grid system pre-sizing at Boston”  Now select “Horizon”  This tool lets you create shading obstacles to mimic shading from trees, building, etc.  You can simply drag the shade points with mouse  Or, you can even import Solmetric SunEye data! Preliminary Design

18. “Far Shadings” can be simulated

19.  You can choose from specifying the collector (aka array’s) active area, its nominal (dc) power rating, or desired yield (in MWh/year)  Choose area if you are trying to model how much energy could be collected from given roof  Choose power if you know how large your want the system to be (e.g., client can spend $$$ which translates into a certain size system based on install cost  Choose annual yield if you are mostly interested in energy harvesting potential  Select “nominal power” and type in “20” for size Now Click on “System”

20.  Note how you can input array tilt and azimuth angles. The default is 30 deg and 0 deg, respectively  Click on “show optimization” and you learn the effects of changing tilt and azimuth on annual yield (% loss)  Or, you can see impact on either summer or winter periods—could be important if client is concerned with electricity rate (price) schemes System Specification, con’t

22.  Click sun shields—this is for using PV modules as window overhangs (or “shields”)  Click “sheds disposition”  “Pitch” = row spacing in meters; try changing this number and see how drawing changes  “Collector band width” Click on the “More!” button

24.  Basic parameters selected:  Module type (pick standard)  Technology (pick monocrystalline)  Mounting disposition (pick ground based)  Ventilation property (pick ventilated)  Click OK  Back on main screen, click on “Results” Now click on “Next”

25.  Click on “price tag” on left and change currency to dollars  Then click on “edit costs”  Look at “Category”; defaults to “specific pre-sizing costs (all systems); long, long list of changeable costs  But, select “grid-connected system” pre-sizing from menu and nine “derate”-like factors appear which you can adjust Customizing Results

27.  Leave the efficiency values at their defaults for now (you can play with them later)  Go back to “specific pre-sizing costs”, and change default “specific maintenance cost” from 80 Euro to 10 euro (per kW)  Default seems really high  Back on main results screen, note the parameters at the top center—these can be changed  Try changing from 20 kW to 30 kW—it will always ask if you want to save the original (i.e., 20 kW) results Customizing Results, con’t

29.  Checkout the totals displayed in the upper right corner  Area of array  Annual yield (in MWh)  Investment (total installed cost—but not including incentives!)  Energy cost ($/kWh)  This is the annual cost (loan payments + mx) divided by yield (in kWh): $6527/27313kWh = $0.24/kWh Results, con’t

31.  Now select the “table” button  These results look at bit like PVWatts  If you multiply the “shed-shading” result by the system’s area, then multiply by the module efficiency, then by the total derate factor (these were back on the “Edit cost” page), you will get the system output per day results  Take July: (6.02 kWh/m^2-day)*(125 m^2) *(0.16)*(0.842) = 102.2 kWh/day Results, con’t

33.  Note that there is finally a “help” button visible, which when clicked will open up the PVSystm help file Results, con’t

34.  Click okay  Takes you back to preliminary design homepage. Note that you can always come back and reopen the file you just created using the “file” menu at the top left of this page  Click exit, takes you back to the PVSyst main page Finishing with preliminary

35. Project Design