PV Sizing of a Stand Alone Solar Carport System Linked to Charging Stations and its Economic Analysis (A Case Study)

Abstract

Electricity production from renewable energy sources mainly from solar energy, encouraged the shifting toward clean energy generation while responding to the increased energy demands of the population. This paper aims to design an off-grid photovoltaic (PV) solar carport to supply energy to electric cars. Sizing the off-grid solar carport system is to determine the number and type of solar panels, system voltage, batteries, charge regulator, and inverter size. In addition to sizing fuses and switches, combiner boxes, and the wires connecting the components of the system. In this case, the available parking area for which a solar carport is designed is 165 m2. Thus, 102 solar panels are installed which have an annual energy production of 42150KWh determined by the software System Advisor Model (SAM), where the performance of each solar panel annually decreases by 0.5%. For a daily energy demand of 65KWh, 40 batteries where each battery has a capacity of 220Ah, 4 inverters where each has a power rating of 25KW, and 17 charge controllers are installed. Linking the system components is done through copper wires that their length and cross-section area are sized. The economic analysis of the system concluded that the capital investment cost of the system is 661045.36MAD, the life cycle cost (LCC) is 1460022.64MAD, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is 1.60MAD/KWh, and the payback period is 10.5 years. The estimated amount of the mitigated CO2 emissions for the PV system is 657347Kg/year. The results of the developed system can further be used in other applications for solar PV systems sizing.