Solar PV System Design for a Sports Stadium

Abstract

This paper presents design and analysis of a photovoltaic (PV) based renewable energy system for a sports stadium located at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) campus in Oman. The key issue is to design the system so that it has sufficient generation to meet the energy demand of the stadium and support the utility grid in reducing fossil fuel based generation. To address this issue, the system was designed based on the total energy requirement by the load in the stadium over a year. The other challenge is that the output of the PV system varies and reduces as the temperature increases every hour. Oman is blessed with higher solar irradiation; however, the output of the PV system varies significantly due to the temperature variability during the day. This paper addresses the design steps considering the effect of temperature variation. A detailed design calculation using system equations has been presented and analysed. The outcome of the design shows that the PV based renewable system is able to meet the energy requirement (61.3MWh/year) by the load in a year. Moreover, the design system is able to sell energy (43.3MWh/year) back to the grid that will produce extra revenue for the system owner.