Performance Evaluation of 1.1 MW Grid-Connected Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant in Louisiana

Deepak Jain Veerendra Kumar, Lelia Deville, Kenneth A. Ritter, Johnathan Richard Raush, Farzad Ferdowsi, Raju Gottumukkala and Terrence Lynn Chambers
Additional contact information
Deepak Jain Veerendra Kumar: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 250 E. Lewis Street, Lafayette, LA 70503, USA
Lelia Deville: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 250 E. Lewis Street, Lafayette, LA 70503, USA
Kenneth A. Ritter: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 250 E. Lewis Street, Lafayette, LA 70503, USA
Johnathan Richard Raush: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 250 E. Lewis Street, Lafayette, LA 70503, USA
Farzad Ferdowsi: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 131 Rex Street, Lafayette, LA 70503, USA
Raju Gottumukkala: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 250 E. Lewis Street, Lafayette, LA 70503, USA
Terrence Lynn Chambers: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 250 E. Lewis Street, Lafayette, LA 70503, USA

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: In this work, performance analysis and comparison of three photovoltaic technologies are carried out in the Louisiana climate. During the calendar year of 2018, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette constructed and commissioned a 1.1 MW solar photovoltaic power plant for researching solar power in southern Louisiana and for partial energy demand of the university. It was one of the largest solar photovoltaic power plants in Louisiana when constructed and receives an annual solar insolation of 4.88 kWh/m 2 /d at latitude minus five degrees (25°) tilt. The solar power plant has a total of 4142 modules and incorporates three module technologies. Preliminary performance data from the system level are presented. The evaluation of different technologies is based on final yield, performance ratio, and capacity factor for one year from September 2019 to August 2020. An economic analysis is carried out using levelized cost of energy for the three photovoltaic (PV) technologies. Finally, the results are compared with simulated results of System Advisor Model (SAM) and PVsyst. It was found that copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) has better performance ratio of 0.79 compared with monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon, which have performance ratios of 0.77 and 0.73, respectively. The simulation results correlated with the actual performance of the plant.

Keywords: performance ratio; system efficiency; energy yield; capacity factor; solar photovoltaic system; levelized cost of energy (LCOE); modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/9/3420/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/9/3420/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:9:p:3420-:d:810458

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().