Search

The rise in green energies attempts to fulfil worldwide energy needs while substituting fossil fuels. It does, however, necessitate a vast amount of land. On the other hand, food security is jeopardized by the effects of climate change as well as an expanding population, particularly in India. As India strives for net-zero emissions by 2050, the integration of photovoltaics (PV) with agriculture has unlocked an emerging field known as agrivoltaics (AV). Agrivoltaics not only provides a long-term solution to the issue of land competition, but it also increases agricultural yields, conserves water resources, and lowers greenhouse gas emissions. To evaluate the elements influencing the efficiency of AV, studies on revolutionary technologies connected to solar systems and the latest generation of photovoltaics are examined. This paper looks at agrivoltaics as a climate-conscious farming option with its advantages and disadvantages in India. This article also reviews AV plant designs and how varied intervals, altitude, and density affect shadowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the assessment of solar resources, investigation of performance, and estimation of normalized performance indices of a 1 kWp Solar PV system in India's climatology of an isolated hilly area. The monthly and yearly mean normalized performance indices are estimated. The annual mean values of the daylight hours, cell temperature, and ambient temperature are 12.7 h/d, 10.89°C, and 1.25°C, respectively. The yearly mean values and corresponding ranges of monthly mean values of capacity factor, performance ratio, array yield, reference yield, final yield, array capture loss and system loss are obtained as 23.60%, 59.82%, 2.83 h/d, 4.63 h/d, 2.69 h/d, 1.8 h/d, 0.14 h/d and (17.56–29.07)%, (47.93–75.55)%, (2.24–3.42) h/d, (2.85–6.1) h/d, (2.13–3.25) h/d, (0.60–2.99) h/d and (0.11–0.17) h/d, respectively. The Levelized Cost of energy is reduced to 85% and 68.22% by using the proposed solar PV/ battery system compared to DG and DG/Battery systems. A saving of 14.8 kl of diesel and the corresponding reduction of emissions of carbon monoxide (244.22 kilograms), unburned hydrocarbons (10.66 kg), particulates (1.48 kg), and nitrogen Oxides (229.42 kg) have also been achieved per year. These findings effectively provide optimal power solution strategies for policymakers in the concerned area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) based hybrid renewable energy generation are environmentally friendly and reasonable. This study describes a hybrid distributed energy generations (DEGs)-based microgrid framework where DC-DC converter, three-stage inverter with fuzzy logics control (FLC), and LC filter channel are coupled with the PV and wind energy. In India, wind and PV energies are affordable for hybrid power frameworks since they are ecological well-disposed and broadly accessible. Generally, these sources produce a fluctuating yield voltage that prompts harm to the working grid on a steady inventory. The proposed model of the hybrid-based framework is executed utilizing MATLAB/Simulink. A boost converter being associated with PV cluster is associated with the basic DC bus also a battery is used by a two-way DC to DC converter, and connected into the utility framework by a typical DC to AC inverter. Wind cluster and PV is linked with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) to produce the higher capacity to the grid, and the charging and discharging of the battery energy can be done to adjust the energy between DEGs generation and utility network. In this paper, various cases of harmonic analysis are executed on MATLAB-simulation and feasibility of proposed grid models and FLC-based intelligent control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the growing significance of solar energy, the paper presents the findings of the maiden study on the long-term seasonal performance assessment of three PV module technologies—monocrystalline (m-Si), polycrystalline (p-Si), and amorphous silicon (a-Si) housed in a 1 MW solar plant installed at a local steppe climate in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India using the key performance indicators (KPIs), daily power generation, final yield (Y f), reference yield (Y r), total energy loss (T EL) and performance ratio (PR). Notably, the am-Si PV modules were found to be the best performing technology, with an average PR of 71.26% and the lowest average total energy loss of 631 h during the monitored period. Moreover, PV systems have become more popular as a source of green, clean energy; yet, they have low base-load energy sustainability. Explainable AI (XAI) aids in understanding predictions made by the machine learning models. The importance of XAI lies in the comprehension and trust which is embedded into the results of machine learning algorithms. Therefore, the present work builds a comprehensive XAI model for predicting KPIs and assesses the performance of several learning algorithms using R-value, MAE, the number of iterations, and execution time. The Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm predicts the KPIs for p-Si, am-Si, and m-Si with prediction accuracies of 98.63%, 98.58%, and 90.09%, respectively. In summary, this study not only advances our understanding of PV module performance in a steppe climate context but also contributes to the broader field by integrating an XAI model for transparent and reliable predictions of the KPIs. [Display omitted] • Comparison of m-Si, p-Si, and a-Si PV modules in a 1 MW solar plant, Gandhinagar, India, showed long-term performance. • a-Si PV modules outperformed with a 71.26% PR and the lowest 631 hours energy loss, surpassing m-Si and p-Si technologies. • Study underscores XAI's role in ML predictions, developing a robust model to predict KPIs and evaluate learning algorithms. • Levenberg-Marquardt showed high accuracy: 98.63% for p-Si, 98.58% for a-Si, and 90.09% for m-Si PV modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Government of India had initially aimed at an installed capacity of 20 GW solar PV power generation by 2022. However, India has 29.41 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) plants as of now, which shows that the target is achieved three years ahead of schedule. Kurnool solar power park is one of the largest solar parks in India, receiving an excellent average solar radiation of 5.5–6.0 kWh/m2. As part of this project, a 50 MW solar photovoltaic system has been installed at Kurnool. This paper determines the performance parameters for analysis. The system was monitored from April 2018 to March 2019. The performance ratio varied between 75% and 83%, giving an annual average performance ratio of 79.94%. The capacity utilization factor varied between 18.90% and 29.34%, giving an annual average capacity utilization factor of 24.65%. The gain of modules with single-axis tracking system is compared with the fixed-tilt angle system. It is found that the single-axis tracking system improves the performance of the plant. • Different performance parameters assessed based on the IEC 61724 standards. • Effect of Solar irradiation and temperature on Power generation is analysed. • Results highlight the importance of the single axis tracking system in solar power parks for improving the performance. • Improved performance of single axis tracking system confirmed by metrics obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Comparison of the overall efficiencies of the conventional PV and the water based PVT-PCM panels. • Analysis of the yearly useful thermal energy, useful electrical energy and useful equivalent thermal exergy. • Analysis of embodied energy, energy payback time and lifecycle conversion efficiency. • Investigation of the Uniform end -of -year annual Cost and the Cost of DC electrical energy production. An investigation on PVT-PCM/water system has been carried out under the weather conditions at Kottayam (9.5425 °N, 76.8202 °E), India. In the present paper, experimentations have been done to compare the overall performance of PV and water-based PVT-PCM panels. The PVT-PCM/water system has been analysed under various outdoor environmental conditions and it has been recorded that the integration of PCM contributed to an improved thermal and overall efficiency of 26.87% and 40.59% respectively, along with a rise in electrical efficiency by 17.33% compared with conventional PV panel. It has been found that the payback time for the water-based PVT-PCM system is about 6 years on the overall exergy basis, which is 11.26% shorter compared to conventional PV panels. Also, the water-based PVT-PCM system has long-term lifecycle conversion efficiency compared to conventional PV panel by about 27%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Photovoltaic–thermal (PV/T) technology refers to the integration of a PV and a conventional solar thermal collector in a single piece of equipment. In this paper we evaluate the performance of partially covered flat plate water collectors connected in series using theoretical modeling. PV is used to run the DC motor, which circulates the water in a forced mode. Analytical expressions for N collectors connected in series are derived by using basic energy balance equations and computer based thermal models. This paper shows the detailed analysis of thermal energy, exergy and electrical energy yield by varying the number of collectors by considering four weather conditions (a, b, c and d type) for five different cities (New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Srinagar, and Jodhpur) of India. Annual thermal and electrical energy yield is also evaluated for four different series and parallel combination of collectors for comparison purpose considering New Delhi conditions. This paper also gives the total carbon credit earned by the hybrid PV/T water heater investigated as per norms of Kyoto Protocol for New Delhi climatic conditions. Cost analysis has also been carried out. It is observed that the collectors partially covered by PV module combines the production of hot water and electricity generation and it is beneficial for the users whose primary requirement is hot water production and collectors fully covered by PV is beneficial for the users whose primary requirement is electricity generation. We have also found that if this type of system is installed only in 10% of the total residential houses in Delhi then the total carbon credit earned by PV/T water heaters in terms of thermal energy is USD $144.5 millions per annum and in terms of exergy is USD $14.3 millions per annum, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A solar dryer integrated with photovoltaic powered DC fan has been designed and installed at Solar Energy Park, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. The dryer has been coupled to a solar air heater having blackened surface of absorber for improved energy collection efficiency and a drying chamber with chimney. An analytical expression for characteristic equation for photovoltaic/thermal mixed mode dryer has been derived as a function of design and climatic parameters. The experiment was carried out for forced mode under no load conditions during April 2008 and validated with theoretical results for New Delhi climatic condition. This paper also shows the detailed analysis of thermal energy, exergy, and electrical energy gain by considering four weather conditions (a, b, c, and d type) for five different cities (New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Srinagar, and Jodhpur) of India. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of acquiring photovoltaic power involves designing, selecting and determining specifications depending on a variety of factors, such as geographical location, weather condition, solar irradiance, and load consumption. In this paper a detailed design of a standalone rooftop solar PV system to provide uninterrupted power supply for a hostel building is presented. It outlines the detailed procedure for specifying each component of the stand-alone rooftop solar PV system and its performance analysis using simulation software. Detailed cost analysis including installation and maintenance of a rooftop solar PV system during its life span has also been carried out. The cost of PV generation and environmental benefit are also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mitigation of global energy demands and climate change are the most important factors in the modern days. Development and application of solar energy have been regarded by the government of India and common people, and they thought that solar photo voltaic energy can provide more energy in future compare to other renewable energies. In the last decade, solar photovoltaic energy research and development has supported by the central government and state governments. This paper discusses the progress of current solar photovoltaic energy in India. It highlights the renewable energy trend in India with major achievements, state wise analysis of solar parks and industrial applications. Finally, it discusses the Indian government policies and initiatives to promote solar energy in India. This review on solar photovoltaic energy will help decision makers and various stakeholders to understand the current status, barriers and challenges for better planning and management in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copious and accessible sun radiation creates an attractive system for converting solar energy into electrical energy. The solar power plants are installed in remote locations and hence needs monitoring and controlling system from remotely. A computerized remote solar plant monitoring system with an enormous range of solar Photovoltaic (PV) exploitation needs well-developed systems with Web-based interfaces. This research work focuses an inter-disciplinary field of renewable solar power plants located in the southern region of India, integrating with recent digital technology of Internet of Things (IoT) which supports to monitor real-time data of solar irradiation (G), temperature (T), clearness index (Kt), panel voltage (Vpv), current (Ipv), peak power (Pmp), and tilt angle of solar panel (β°) and also to control the optimum inclination angle (β°opt) of the solar panel for maximizing of PV power using Genetic Algorithm (GA). An integrated solar power plant with IoT is developed with hardware setup and virtually tested for enhancing the tracking behavior of the proposed system. The IoT-based control of solar power plant significantly improves the performance of monitoring and maintenance of the power plant parameters with cost-effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an optimal off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV)/hydrogen fuel cell (FC) (HFC) based energy system is proposed for renewable energy generation to supply electricity to the end-user load demand in north-east (NE) Indian states. The energy system is modeled and simulated in the HOMER software. The monthly average global horizontal solar radiation (GHSR) and ambient temperature of the NE states are found to be 3.95–4.79 kWh/m2 and 12.9–25.3 °C, respectively. The synthesized typical AC electrical load profile of 10 kWp is assumed to have a scaled daily annual mean value equal to 138 kWh/d and an average base demand value equal to 5.75 kW. With the considered connected load, the available GHSR and ambient temperature, the optimal sizes of renewable energy components for the considered eight geographical locations (latitude: 23° 30′-27° 3′ North, longitude: 88° 37' – 94° 7′ East) are determined based on the minimum levelized cost of energy (COE) and lowest net present cost (NPC). The optimal system architecture range obtained is 110–120 kW PV array, 10–15 kW FC, 30–60 kW electrolyzer, 40–60 kg hydrogen tank capacity and 15 kW converter. Based on optimization results, the levelized COE and NPC range obtained are 0.509–0.689 $/kWh and $ 3,27,557–4,43,004, respectively, which confirm the cost-effectiveness of the proposed optimal energy system. Besides, with a renewable fraction of 100%, the electricity generated by the PV/HFC system satisfied the load demand and produced excess electricity with capacity factor found to be 16.4–31.2% in all the NE Indian states. Moreover, the optimized electrical profile, PV profile, inverter profile, and hydrogen production from an FC are compared and analyzed in terms of monthly average and annualized values for all the NE states. Also, the range of net hydrogen produced by the electrolyzer over the year obtained is 1538–1856 kg/yr. [Display omitted] • Recommended an optimal off-grid PV/HFC energy systems for eight India north east (NE) states. • System profiles are compared, analyzed and discussed for all the NE states. • The levelized COE is 0.509 – 0.689 $/kWh and NPC is $ 3, 27,557-4, 43,004. • Excess electricity produced in NE states ranges from 21.4-41.4%. • Net hydrogen produced by the electrolyzer over the year is obtained as1538-1856 kg/yr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) module qualification standards, IEC 61215 and IEC 61730, were designed to apply to "general open‐air climates" and IEC 61730 specifically indicated applicability of ambient air temperature of 40°C. Additionally, these standards provided allowances for so‐called "open rack mounted PV modules" without a clear definition of "open‐rack." These implied restrictions and allowances meant that hotter climates or thermally restrictive installation methods may not be covered by these often customer‐mandated certification standards. This is particularly salient for the significant growth regions of the Middle East and India that would be expected to operate at significantly higher temperatures. The applicability of these documents raised issues over the definition of "open rack" and the fact that the geographic location is just as important as the mounting configuration in assessing the impact of the micro‐environment of a PV module. This work summarizes the scientific background for IEC Technical Specification 63126:2020 ED1, titled "Guidelines for qualifying PV modules components and materials for operation at high temperatures." This standard was recently published by the IEC and is the first step in a systematic effort to rework these standards to address the question of temperature more directly. Instead of specifying a mounting condition, we specify different suites of tests suitable for a system (PV module, mounting style, and location) defined by the 98th percentile cell temperature. With a defined temperature regime to work from, this allowed us to use existing literature research combined with additional modeling work to determine, which tests would need to be modified. This resulted in suggested changes to material thermal indices, thermal cycling temperatures, hot spot testing, ultraviolet testing, and bypass diode testing among other tests and characteristics described herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides experimental validation of a previously published optimal design theory for photovoltaic (PV)-powered electrodialysis reversal (EDR) desalination systems. The prior work describes the co-optimization of PV and EDR subsystems, and flexible operation to accommodate daily and annual solar irradiance variability, significantly reducing water cost. This study presents the fabrication of a PV-EDR pilot system designed using the co-optimization theory and field testing results from the rural village of Chelluru, India. Testing in the field enabled observation and evaluation of real-world factors on system performance, resulting in updates to the previous theory to include unaccounted factors that affect costs, including: filling and draining of water tanks, salt and water accumulation in tanks from prior batches, unexpected energy losses due to locally purchased converters, and scaling in the ED stack. Therefore, water cost in the PV-EDR pilot system was updated from previous estimates based on field performance. The estimated capital cost and lifetime cost of the Chelluru system are 34% and 45% lower, respectively, than the corresponding costs if the PV-EDR system was designed using conventional design practice. The theory and experimental insights presented in this paper will enable desalination engineers to better design and optimize PV-EDR systems. • This study validated previous published optimal design theory of PV-EDR systems. • A pilot-scale co-optimized PV-EDR system was built and tested in rural India. • Testing in the field enabled accounting real-world factors in future PV-EDR design. • 34% and 45% reductions of LCOW and capital cost are achieved by the pilot system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic technology is an effective, reliable and rapidly developing technology to convert solar energy into electrical energy. In the recent years, the need and demand of solar photovoltaic water pumping system has been increased as a standalone water pumping system to pump water in remote, desolate and mountainous region for end use of livestock watering and rural/urban water supply system. For a required pumping head, photovoltaic array configuration and its size (peak power rating, Wp) affect the flow rate of pumped water, economy and performance of solar photovoltaic water pumping system. The recent work is aimed to study performance of a directly coupled solar photovoltaic water pumping system at different pumping heads (2 bar, 3 bar, 4 bar, and 5 bar) and different photovoltaic array configurations (3S×2P, 4S×2P, 5S×2P, 6S, 7S, and 8S) for the real meteorological conditions of the Vidarbha region, central India (Nagpur). A comparative study has been done to investigate the head effect on the optimum photovoltaic array configuration, pump and pumping system total efficiency by performing experiment on the centrifugal deep well pump (SQF 5A-7), with 6-10 photovoltaic modules (200 W each) with various configurations and different heads. It is concluded that the 4S×2P and 5S×2P configurations are most optimized array to provide optimum energy at all pumping heads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012, the government of Bihar revived 34 non-functioning public tubewells using solar panels. The performance of 16 of these wells over 12 months was tracked and analyzed using data from tubewell operators and 240 farmers. Access to affordable irrigation from solar pumps led to a 9–10% increase in productivity of rice and wheat. Furthermore, in a severe drought, farmers could grow paddy in the entire area irrigated by solar pumps, when nearly 40% of other land was left fallow. Solar pumps can help increase crop productivity, reduce the cost of irrigation, and make agriculture more resilient to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]