The Component Photovoltaic
The component Photovoltaic represents a universal model for a photovoltaic system.
Component Template
The Photovoltaic.e-ctpl component template is located in the Component template library folder Renewable Energy Sources.
Integration Into a Scheme
How the Component Works
The component template Photovoltaic is based on a generally valid model. Within an energy project, an individual component can be generated from the component template by entering characteristic values in the forms.
The Photovoltaic component obtains the environmental data for measuring solar radiation from the Solar Radiation component and, if applicable, from the project master data.
You can select the Calculation method: With specifcation of electrical power output (see the following figure) or With solar radiation data (see below). In addition, the Controlled or Not controlled Operation mode must be selected.
The following figure shows the Technical input data of the Photovoltaic component with the Calculation method With solar radiation data and the Specification of the Peak power per module.
The tilt angle (inclination angle called Elevation angle of the solar collector here) and Azimuth angle have to be specified in degrees without selecting a unit in the unit field. TOP-Energy converts degrees to radians. In the sensitivity analysis, the unit field for the angles also remains empty.
The Size of one module refers to its needed base area. If necessary, it must be offset against the Elevation angle of the solar collector before entry. The total area required by the photovoltaic modules of the component is calculated by TOP-Energy from the Number of modules and the Size of one module and subtracted from the Available solar field area. If the sum of the areas of the solar and PV systems that are not to be optimized in their structure but are connected to one Solar Radiation component exceeds the total available area, a warning appears.
As an alternative to specifying the Peak power per module, you can specify the Peak power of total solar plant (of the entire system). In this case, the component part Competitive solar field area (structural optimization) appears at the bottom of the Technical input data form (see following figure).
The total area occupied by all Solar cell modules of this component is to be entered here.
This area is subtracted from the Available solar field area recorded in the Solar Radiation component. Structurally optimized components that receive solar radiation are adjusted to this. The area of photovoltaic components that are structurally optimized is calculated within the specified Minimum and Maximum collector area and the available area.
The following figure shows the Technical input data of the Photovoltaic component for structural optimization.
To consider degradation (loss of power due to system aging), there are two ways, which are described in the linked article.
Cost function
The cost function is preset with values without installation costs (see following table: investment costs only for modules and inverters), which you can replace with your own values.
| Peak power (kWp) | Investment costs including installation (EUR/kWp) | Investment costs including installation (EUR) | Investment costs only for modules and inverters (EUR) | Investment costs only for modules and inverters (Cent/Wp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 600 | 1 600 | 523,70 | 52,37 |
| 100 | 1 107 | 110 700 | 37 370 | 37,37 |
| 500 | 1 075 | 537 500 | 186 850 | 37,37 |
| 10 000 | 530 | 5 300 000 | 3 737 000 | 37,37 |
Data in the table are calculated on the basis of the following publications:
Kost, Christoph: Stromgestehungskosten Erneuerbare Energien, Freiburg 2021, editor: Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme ISE, p. 11,
pvXchange Trading GmbH: Preisindex, retrieved September 7, 2021, from https://www.pvxchange.com/preisindex,
PHOTON – Das Solarstrom-Magazin, 3, 2021, editor: PHOTON International GmbH, Aachen.
