The Dutch PV Portal 2.0

The growing importance of solar energy, or photovoltaic (PV) energy, worldwide in recent years has increased the need for publicly available, reliable information on PV technology. To this end, the PVMD group launched its own solar energy website titled the Dutch PV Portal (PVP 1.0) in 2014. This thesis centred around the expansion of the PVP 1.0 by creating a new version of the website with additional functionalities. The following results were achieved in the thesis: (1) a meteorological database storing real-time and annual data for 46 locations in the Netherlands was created. The annual values are updated every hour with real-time weather measurements, making the database dynamic. (2) An annual PV system performance model was made calculating the energy yield of user-designed systems. Two novel features incorporated in this model are a soiling loss calculation based on rainfall measurements, and an orientation-dependent inverter sizing factor to choose the optimal inverter size. (3) A figure was incorporated in the website showing the real-time efficiency losses occurring in a user-designed PV system. (4) A model to estimate the national solar energy production was made through a simulation of a set of 475 PV systems representing the characteristics of the Dutch installed solar panel capacity. (5) An economic profitability model of residential and commercial PV systems was created.The final PVP 2.0 website collects and displays relevant, scientifically accurate, and publically accessible information on solar energy within the Netherlands. The website can be viewed at https://www.tudelft.nl/pvp2/.Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technolog