Residential Solar Photovoltaic System Design

Solar energy is considered a viable renewable energy source for meeting the world’s increasing energy demands. This is due to various advantages such as availability, environmental-friendliness (no CO2 emissions), and its decentralized nature. The research proposal proposes to design a grid connected photovoltaic system which stores, converts, and manages solar power for use in residential settings. At its core, the system will use solar panels to supply power to batteries and an AC inverter. The system will utilize stored energy from the battery bank to meet the energy needs of household devices and loads. During extended periods of high load the system will utilize standard grid power. During instances of excess photovoltaic power, when the battery bank is already fully charged, the system will supply excess power to the local grid. We will create a simulation of the system to test and understand the various household loads and to approximate the amount of power generated with photovoltaic cells. The simulation determines the required number of solar cells and the system storage capacity from the average load characteristics of households and the average solar irradiance. The load curve will be analyzed carefully and the PV system will be sized and combined with the battery system in such a way to cover all the points of the load curve. The system will be designed to accommodate homes in Georgia, specifically the city of Statesboro. This project proposes the design of a grid connected photovoltaic (PV) system for typical house in terms of sizing of PV units and battery storage. The sizing of the system will be determinant based on the expected loads, characteristics of the used PV module and the meteorological data of the region of installation. The system consists of PV panels, a DC-DC converter interfacing PV panels, a bi-directional DC-DC battery charger and a single phase inverter interfacing the DC bus to the loads (typical home appliances) and the main AC grid. The power conditioning unit needed to regulate the output voltage of the system across the terminals of the load and track the maximum power point (MPP) will be presented. The optimum operation of the system will be achieved based on accurate forecasting and intelligent management of the available PV power. Finally, we will implement Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Simulink model to make a general design for a wide range of loads using ANN toolbox inside the MATLAB. We use simulation methods like MATLAB software, ANN toolbox, and Simulink to make simulation test-bed. Then, we will construct the experimental test-bed using the previous mentioned equipment to validate the work