Assessment of Technology Transfer from Grid power to Photovoltaic: An Experimental Case Study for Pakistan

Pakistan is located on the world map where enough solar irradiance value strikes the ground that can be harnessed to vanish the existing blackout problems of the country. Government is focusing towards renewable integration, especially solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. This work is focused to assess the techno-economic viability of different PV technologies with aim of recommending the most optimum type for domestic sector in high solar irradiance region of the country. For this purpose, standalone PV systems are installed using monocrystalline (m-Si), polycrystalline (p-Si), and amorphous crystalline (a-Si) modules on the rooftop at 31.4 oN latitude position. The performance of PV modules is evaluated based on, average output power, normalized power output efficiency, module conversion efficiency, and performance ratio. Results elaborated that m-Si module is the optimum type for the application with 23.01% average normalized power output efficiency. Economics of the system has also been evaluated in terms of the price of power value produced by PV modules with respect to the consumption of that power value from grid source in base case. Integration of such type of domestic PV systems are a need of time to make the future sustainable.