Design optimization of utility-scale PV power plant

Abstract: Solar energy market has been rapidly growing in Sweden over the past few years. Älvdalen municipality in central Sweden is investigating the possibility of installing a utility-scale solar power plant. In the present work, we investigate technical design and economic viability of a utility-scale solar power plant in Älvdalen. Several photovoltaics (PV) designs on a 6.6-hectar land are modeled and analyzed. The installation capacity depends on design parameters, such as inter-row spacing distance and orientation.PVsyst simulation tool is used to model several PV system configurations, consisting of both mono- and bifacial PV modules. An extensive sensitivity analysis is performed to get a deep understanding of different design parameters and their effects on performance and production yield of the plant.For PV systems consisting of monofacial PV panels, a set of parameters is investigated, namely, tilt angle of PV arrays, space between rows of the plant. It is observed that an optimized design requires a careful consideration of the two parameters, since they considerably affect the amount of self-shading (shading of PV rows on each other).The optimum design generates more than 5000 MWh electricity annually.Bifacial configurations are designed in two forms: tilted (south or south-east facing) and vertical (east-west oriented). Tiled bifacial systems are basically similar to the monofacial ones. A comparison between the two systems shows that the bifacial gain is between 3 % to 10 %, depending on the tilt angle, inter-row spacing, and PV array height above the ground. Electricity generation per surface area of the vertical east-west bifacial configuration is significantly lower compared to the others and therefore, it is only economically viable together with other land applications, such as agricultural usage.Economical evaluation indicates that for the optimum design the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is 0.67 SEK/MWh and 0.72 SEK/MWh for monofacial and bifacial system, respectively. Such financial figures are subject to change, depending on the design and financial parameters.