Energy balance analysis of a stand-alone photovoltaic system, including variable system reliability impact

J.K. Kaldellis, P. Koronakis and K. Kavadias

Renewable Energy, 2004, vol. 29, issue 7, 1161-1180

Abstract: Official statistics estimate that almost two billion people have no direct access to electrical networks, 500,000 of them living in European Union and more than one tenth of them in Greece. An autonomous photovoltaic system is one of the most interesting and environmental friendly technological solutions for the electrification of remote consumers or entire rural areas. The primary objective of this current study is to determine the optimum dimensions of an appropriate stand-alone photovoltaic system, able to guarantee the coverage of remote consumers energy demand located in typical Greek territories using long-term measurements, under the restriction of minimum initial cost. Accordingly, the impact of acceptable reliability level on the stand-alone photovoltaic system energy behaviour and initial cost is also examined. Finally, special emphasis is laid on the detailed energy balance analysis of selected stand-alone photovoltaic system configurations, on an hourly basis at least. According to the results obtained, a properly sized stand-alone photovoltaic system is a motivating prospect for the energy demand problems of numerous existing isolated consumers all around Greece.

Keywords: Stand-alone system; Optimum system sizing; Photovoltaic system; Energy balance; Reliability level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148103003884
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:29:y:2004:i:7:p:1161-1180

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2003.11.014

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().