How to calculate how many solar modules you need Solar Energy Course 2020 Part 8 of 12

Welcome to "How to Calculate How Many Solar Modules You Need". 📜Get your course certificate📜 ********************************** http://bit.ly/solar-crash-course-ipolytek SUBSCRIBE to see more courses like this one *********************************************** https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYYX-pqg9CoVhjtC4cW4DIA?sub_confirmation=1 This is the 8th video in our online course on Solar Energy. In it we discuss: How many solar modules are needed to produce a certain amount of power? How would you calculate this? What is the effect of module efficiency on your result? Find out in this video. This video is part of iPolytek's online course on solar energy. iPolytek, Professional Development Courses for Engineers. Estimating the size of a PV System involves a number of steps. The first is to determine the required PV power capacity based on - the energy consumption of the load and - the number of peak sun hours per day (at 1000W/m2) at the location in question Let's look at an example: Let's say the annual energy consumption of the load is 9125 kWh/year. This gives us an average daily energy consumption of 25 kWh/day Let's say 50% of energy consumption will be provided by PV So, the PV system energy output will equal 12.5 kWh/day. Now determine the number of peak sun hours available per day at the installation location. There are two ways of doing this. In the first method, you look up the number of peak sun hours available per day on a map or chart such as the ones shown below. Remember to use the value of the worst month of the year for critical applications. Here we see a World Insolation Map: This map shows the amount of energy in hours, received each day on an optimally inclined surface during the worst month of the year. Or you can use tables such as this one which shows the Sun Hours Available Per Day in Canada. This table shows the number of sun hours at peak solar irradiance (1000 W/m2) during the summer, winter and over the year (average). Remember, that it is more difficult to produce electricity during the winter because of shorter days, increased cloudiness and the sun's lower position in the sky. So, if you are using your system primarily in the summer, use the summer value. If you are using your system year-round, especially for a critical application, use the winter value. If you are using the system most of the year (spring, summer and fall) or the application is not critical, use the average value. Here is a similar table for the USA. In the second method, you calculate the number of peak sun hours available per day based on the Global Horizontal Irradiation map. However, note that this method will give you the yearly average value. Let's look at an example. Here is the GLOBAL HORIZONTAL IRRADIATION (GHI). Remember that this map shows us the energy available at a solar irradiation of 1000W/m2 both on a daily basis and on an annual basis. So, taking Montreal Canada as an example we see that the daily GHI is 3.5 kWh/m2*day. Converting this value to watts and dividing by 1000W/m2 we obtain 3.5 peak sun hours/day. The same result using the annual GHI value. NOTE: Referring back to tables we can see that we obtained the same result as the average value listed in this table using the Global Horizontal Irradiation map. Continuing with our example, let's use the number of sun hours available per day in Montreal during the winter as indicated in the table. References: ************ 1. Solar Direct. Solar Electric System Sizing, Step 4 - Determine the Sun Hours Available Per Day . http://www.solardirect.com/pv/systems... (Accessed 10 July 2018). 2. PVWatts. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). PVWatts Version 5 Manual. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/62.... (Accessed 15 July 2018). 3. LWD. http://www.lwd.com/solar/deratingfact.... (Accessed 15 July 2018). 4. Canadian Solar. CS6K- 285| 290| 295 P, HIGH EFFICIENCY POLY MODULE. https://www.canadiansolar.com/fileadm.... (Accessed 22 July 2018). 5. PV Education (2). Nominal Operating Cell Temperature. https://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/m.... (Accessed 23 July 2018). Music Credits ************** Track 2: Bounce Ball by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Source: http://www.twinmusicom.org/song/255/b... Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org Track 5: For Mimi by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/ #HowManySolarPanelsDoINeed #SolarPanelCalculation #SolarEnergy