A Technical Study on Assessment of Resource Potential and Technological Options of Solar Energy and Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

This thesis work is a study about solar energy and photovoltaic technology option potential of SNNPR Region. The first task of the study is assessing the availability of solar energy resource in the region. A new topology dependent model of estimating global solar radiation from relative sunshine hour records is developed and applied to estimate the resource potential in the region. As basic technological variations of PV systems, grid connected PV system potentials is anticipated for the region too. The possibly generated solar energy from roof top solar systems installed on hospital buildings in Arbaminch is used to show the photovoltaics potential in term of grid connected systems. The grid connected alternative is more emphasized by a case study on hospital buildings in Arbaminch town. The study shows that the ratio of monthly average daily global solar radiation on a horizontal surface H to the monthly average clear sky daily radiation on a horizontal plane H O (H/H O ) decreases as the altitude and latitude of the site increases and increases as the ratio of monthly average daily number of hours of bright sunshine S to the monthly average daily maximum number of hours of possible sunshine(day length) S O (S/S O ) increases. The study showed that the global radiation in the region is on average 5.433kWh/m2/day. The lowest value is registered at Imdibir during July month which is 3.7kWh/m2/day while the maximum is at Mirababaya during March month and itis 6.9kWh/m2/day. The monthly variation of average radiation of the region is limited between a highest value of6.2kWh/m2/day during March and lowest 4.4kWh/m2/day during July. This small monthly variation allows a good applicability of fixed plane PV systems without anycomplicated tracking system. The estimated annual average solar radiation values for the 10 stations are imported and interpolated to draw a solar map showing distribution of solar radiation in the region using ArcGIS. Finally, the preliminary design result of grid connected PV system of Arbaminch hospital was feasible. The study utilized different meteorological and statistical data and software like MS-Excel, PVSyst, Software.