IFUNANYA
IFUNANYA
IFUNANYA
INTRODUCTION
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are seventeen global goals developed by the United
Nations General assembly to promote a sustainable future for all. The goals were established in
2015, and it is projected that their wide scale deployment will be accomplished by the year 2030
(H´ak, Janouˇskov´a, and Moldan 2016). In relation to the SDGs, renewable energy development
allows achieving energy security not only for domestic use but for transportation, environment,
construction, economy, mechanical work, and industry (Salvarli, & Salvarli, 2020). Renewable
energies generated from solar (Ahmed et al., 2020), wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, and biomass
help supply energy demand and facilitate the development of communities and protection of the
environment on a global scale. In many global locations, solar photovoltaic (PV) is the cheapest
legislative targets for a renewable share in the power mix, although essential, remain below
expectations as technologies are growing at a significantly faster rate than laws regulating them.
Nevertheless, promoting the development and utilization of renewable energy is now a common
consensus, and countries are engaging to explore renewable energy potential (Destek, 2020;
Douvi et al., 2021), especially because Economic growth and energy demand are correlated
conventional technologies where it accounted for 2.8% at the end of 2019 (Statistical review of
world energy, 2020). Several factors lie behind the plummeting cost and fast ramp up of this
technology. One particularly interesting factor is the fact that PV is modular, also referred to as
‘‘granular.’’(Wilson et al., 2020). Identical solar panels of hundreds of watts are combined, by
As solar energy generation keeps growing globally to meet energy needs, economic barriers to
its deployment are also decreasing. Despite its growing penetration in the global marketplace,
rarely discussed is an expansion of solar energy engineering, principles beyond process and
enterprise to account for both economic and ecological systems, including ecosystems, goods
and services. A solar PV system includes the main components of PV modules, a solar
inverter, convertors, storage devices, charge controller, and cables and a bias of system (BoS),
which can generate AC and DC power (Aghaei et al., 2020). However, the desired efficiency
of PV systems relies on many factors as well as understanding the component functionality and
selected; a battery storage system is necessary to store excess electrical energy. When a
standalone system is used, a battery will ensure storage of excess energy, especially whenever a
connected load demands less than the generated PV power (Shen, 2009). Hence, a battery
improves the reliability of the system since the solar resource is naturally intermittent. From a
life cycle cost perspective, a battery storage system proved to be the most expensive component
of the PV system (Koko, 2022). Therefore, the main challenge is the proper sizing of a battery
storage system for the solar PV array size and load demand. Additionally, sizing of the battery
without an energy optimization approach has proved to result in higher system cost and low net
Nigeria is a country with energy deficit, where lack of access to adequate, reliable, and good
quality electricity poses a great challenge to social and economic development. The available
electrical generation capacity in the country ranges between 3500 MW and 5000 MW (Africa P,
2018) and in 2017, only about 55% of the Nigerian population had electricity access. Currently,
the estimated per capita consumption is placed at 151 kWh per year which ideally, should be
about five times higher than the current level. Natural gas dominate on-grid power generation
capacity making up 86% of capacity, while three large hydropower plants which include Jebba,
Shiroro and Kainji plants make up 14% capacity (PWC 2017). The economy of Nigeria is
described as one heavily dependent on generators due to the epileptic nature of electricity
(Joseph, 2014). In the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), generators are the
major source of electricity generation and as such has been a source of noise pollution (Amakom
et al., 2019) and high carbon emission (Amakom et al., 2022). Owing to the never-ending
increases in diesel/petrol price in recent times all across the country and the associated ecological
effects of generator usage, this study is geared towards using renewable energy to power the
department of physics.
1.3 Aim and Objectives
The aim of this project is to install a 10KwP photovoltaic system in the Department of Physics,
This study is very important as it will not only provide stable electricity supply to the
Department of Physics FUTO, but also a hands on approach on the PV installations and
This study is limited to the installation of a 10 KwP PV system in the department of Physics
FUTO using solar panels, Inverters, Charge controllers, coaxial cables and Battery storage
systems.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Despite all the potential benefits that an energy storage system could offer to a net meter
customer, the penetration of storage systems is still low mainly due to the high upfront costs of
installing a battery system (Schopfer et al., 2018). Besides, installing an energy storage system
would also require a purchase of a multimode inverter to replace or add on top of the most
commonly used current grid-connected inverters which further increases the upfront investments.
Hence, before going ahead with purchasing a battery, the financial returns or other metrics in
With the increasing implementation of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, comprehensive methods
and tools are required to dynamically assess their economic and environmental costs and benefits
Ren et al. (2020) studied the integrated system dynamics modeling with life cycle
assessment and life cycle cost assessment to evaluate the cumulative energy demand, carbon
footprint, water footprint, and life cycle cost of residential grid-connected (GC) and standalone
(SA) solar PV systems. The system dynamics model was specifically used for simulating the
hourly solar energy generation, use, and storage during the use phase of the solar PVs. The
modeling framework was then applied to a residential prototype house in Boston, MA to
investigate various PV panel and battery sizing scenarios. When the SA design is under
consideration, the maximum life cycle economic saving can be achieved with 20 panels with no
battery in the prototype house, which increases the life cycle economic savings by 511.6% as
compared to a baseline system sized based upon the engineering rule-of-thumb (40 panels and 40
batteries), yet decreases the demand met by 55.7%. However, the optimized environmental
performance was achieved with significantly larger panel (up to 300 units) and battery (up to
320 units) sizes. These optimized configurations increase the life cycle environmental savings of
the baseline system by up to 64.6%, but significantly decrease the life cycle economic saving by
up to 6868.4%. There is a clear environmental and economic tradeoff when sizing the SA
systems. When the GC system design is under consideration, both the economic and
environmental benefits are the highest when no battery is installed, and the benefits increase with
the increase of panel size. However, when policy constraints such as limitations/caps of grid sell
are in place, tradeoffs would present as whether or not to install batteries for excess energy
storage.
houses were studied by Li (2019). The study was targeted at minimizing the total annual cost of
electricity. With the use of a genetic algorithm involving a time series simulation of the entire
system using data collected through one year. Genetic algorithm jointly optimizes the sizes of the
photovoltaic and the battery systems by adjusting the battery charge and discharge cycles
according to the availability of solar resource and a time-of-use tariff structure for electricity.
Houses without pre-existing solar systems are considered. The results show that jointly
optimizing the sizing of battery and photovoltaic systems can significantly reduce electricity
imports and the cost of electricity for the household. However, the optimal capacity of such
photovoltaic battery varies strongly with the electricity consumption profile of the household,
Aghamohamadi (2020) studied a two-stage adaptive robust optimization (ARO) for optimal
sizing and operation of residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems coupled with battery units.
through polyhedral uncertainty sets. The model determined the optimal size of PV-battery
system while minimizing operating costs under the worst-case realization of uncertainties. The
prior to uncertainty realization. The inner max-min problem, however, determines the operation
technique to recast the trilevel problem into a single-level master problem (the outer min
problem) and a bilevel subproblem (the inner max-min problem). The duality theory and the Big-
M linearization technique are used to transform the bilevel subproblem into a solvable single-
level max problem. The immunization of the model against uncertainties is justified by testing
the obtained solutions against 36 500 trial uncertainty scenarios in a postevent analysis. The
proposed postevent analysis also determines the optimum robustness level of the ARO model to
Tang et al. (2019) found that the high upfront costs of batteries have limited the investment
in retrofit residential energy storage systems for solar customers. Battery size is one of the most
important factors that impact the financial return since it determines the major operational
capabilities of the solar-coupled storage system. To select the optimal battery size for a
customer’s on-site generation and consumption characteristics. However, in most cases there are
insufficient pre-existing data of the required quality making it difficult to perform such analysis.
A model that can achieve satisfactory battery sizing results with a limited amount of net meter
electricity data was used in their study. The model uses K-means clustering on customer net
meter electricity data to discover important information to extrapolate limited input net/gross
meter energy data and uses this in a techno-economic simulation model to determine the optimal
battery size. The results indicate that the proposed model outperforms the alternative baseline
model and can work with as little as one month of net meter energy data for both of the evaluated
tariff structures. On average, the model results in 0.10 normalized root mean squared error in
yearly battery savings and net present values, 0.07 normalised root mean squared error in annual
electricity costs and a r-squared value of 0.717 in finding the optimal size of batteries.
Integration of renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV) generation with variable
power demand systems like residential electricity consumption requires the use of a high
efficiency electrical energy system such as a battery. Parmeshwarappa (2021) studied such
integration using vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) as the energy storage system with
specific focus on the sizing of the power and energy storage capacities of the system components
Several scenarios have been simulated using power and energy scale factors. Battery response, in
terms of its power, state of charge and efficiency, has been monitored in each run. Results show
that the stack power rating should be based on peak charging characteristics while the volume of
electrolyte should be based on the expected daily energy discharge through the battery. The PV
source itself should be sized at about 25% more energy rating than the average daily load. The
ability to design a VRFB with a high power-to-energy ratio makes it particularly attractive for
PV-load integration.
Jain et al. (2020), determined the appropriate size of the renewable energy and related energy
storage for the efficient, economical and reliable operation of the electrical power system using a
simple yet effective sizing strategy for distributed battery energy storage system (BESS) in the
distribution networks under photovoltaic (PV) penetration. Their result showed a negative impact
A battery storage has emerged as the most widely-used storage option, due to its flexible and
complementary functionality for renewable energy systems such as solar PV and wind power. In
order to ensure the efficient operation of batteries in energy systems, a proper battery model is
essential in predicting realistic battery performance under various operating conditions. Accurate
knowledge of the state of charge, state of power, and battery efficiency is a necessity for the
development of advanced grid management applications. The battery life cycle cost and the self-
sufficiency ratio is to be analyzed and optimized as objective functions, and battery capacity
constitutes as a decision variable. In this efforts will be made to use the most standardized, yet
simple battery sizing system for optimal battery efficiency and cost minimization.
Chapter Three
In designing a PV system, pinpointing where and where to place the panels is an extremely
important step since the later components will be streamlined based on this step of the process.
While performing the site assessment, there are a few things one should keep in mind such as the
following:
1. Shade Analysis: Shading can be a problem for the solar panels as they decrease the
maximum power that can be generated. Several factors contribute to this issue, the most
common cause of shade on a solar panel are; a) Shade from neighboring trees and
buildings in vicinity, b) typical cloudy weather, and c) shade from adjacent solar panels
(Solar Choice, 2016). These factors were thoroughly investigated for maximum power
output. The tool most utilized in the shade analysis was the solar pathfinder which gives
the direction of the sun throughout the year and how much any specific area will receive
2. Sun hours: Sun hours are important to know how much radiance will be required to
generate the needed output wattage. This parameter gives us the knowledge of number of
hours an area will receive maximum sunlight (Franklin, 2017). With advances in
technology we have this data available online and anyone can use it. In this study the sun
(https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/nigeria/owerri)
Tilt angle: Tilt angle is the setting of the panels one needs to have to get the maximum
radiance. Ideally the tilt angle is the latitude of the geographic location. It is suggested to
have an adjustable panel frames as the sun hours keep changing with respect to the tilt as
the sun goes down (Franklin, 2017). Because the panels were mounted at the rooftops,
The consensus is to add wattage of the equipment that are going to be powered using the PV
system. For this task, the baseload calculators that are available on the internet were used
every device has fixed power consumption that can be found on its name plate details. The data
for all the devices available were retrieved. The number of each appliance that are going to be
used and number of hours the appliance is supposed to remain ON were supplied to the
calculator to obtain the energy consumption. Up on filling the required data the website
generates a table that give the total Watt-hours that are going to be used i.e. the total energy
Once the total load to be energized using the PV system is calculated the next step is finding out
what area of solar panels would be required to generate that much amount of power. Since it is
an inherent property of any panel to have internal losses. This factor was considered during the
panel sizing. A total of 8 400W panels of size 1956*992*40 mm were selected for the purpose of
this project.
PV battery system assesses various strategies from a financial perspective. The valuable
existence of the battery is limited to 5,000 cycles or in the planned living time of 20 years. The
maintenance of photovoltaic and rechargeable annual activities and expenditure systems is set at
1.5% per the speculative cost. Assume that the cost system for the battery and PV is comparable
to their size. Following is a formula that will enable to calculate what size of battery they should
have.
3.5 Inverter
Ensure that the condition of the AC waveform is suitable for the application
Most system-connected inverters can be introduced externally, and most of the off-grid inverters
are not weather-resistant, because of this, the inverter used in this project was housed indoors.
Inverters used for solar PV systems are usually based upon the total wattage of the solar panels,
as the inverter will be continuously converting the power generated. The second consideration,
was the voltage level of the system. Since system was designed to generate 4000 Watts at a
necessary for the system which involves a battery. The main capacity of the charge controller is
to counteract the battery spoofing. The basic function of charge controller is to monitor charging
and discharging of the battery. It prevents the battery from being completely charged or
discharged. This is important because over charging can lead to destruction of the battery and
under charging decreases the battery life. Another important reason to use a charge controller is
to prevent a reverse current flowing from battery to the system. There are two types of
controllers that are widely available in the market; 1) Pulse width Modulation (PWM), 2)
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). A pulse width modulation charge controller is set to
match the input power of the battery irrespective of the power generated by the panels. Because
of the inherent loss in power observed in this type of charger, the Maximum Power Point
Tracking (MPPT) charger which helps to get the optimum charging power for any given point of
time and offers better efficiency was used for this project.
output of the system to the maximum possible energy output under ideal conditions were
determined. The field efficiency gives an indication of how effectively the solar system is
To calculate the actual energy output, you need to know the total energy produced by the solar
system over a given period. This can be obtained from the solar system's monitoring data or
The maximum possible energy output is the theoretical energy that the solar system could
produce if it operated at its peak capacity under optimal conditions. It is typically calculated
based on the rated capacity of the solar panels and the number of hours of direct sunlight
available during the given period. The rated capacity of the Solar panels were 400W each and 8
pieces of it gave a rated capacity of 3200W (3.2 kW). This value was taken as the rated capacity
of the panels. A 5 hours maximum peak power period were chosen (from 10 a.m to 2 p.m), while
the total daylight hours with direct sunlight were chosen from 9 a.m to 4 p.m.
Figure 3.1: A schematic diagram of the standalone PV system
Chapter Four
efficiency calculation as well as a battery sizing calculation have been performed as part of this
Solar charger
24 hours use 1 0.001 24 0.024
controller
The total energy consumed within the Head of Department’s (HOD) section of the building and
other offices within the building daily, was estimated to be 29.16 kWh/day. This energy
consumption was found to be higher than what the installed PV system can supply.
The result from the energy considerations shows that the system will be dealing with high
Where 0.85 and 0.6 are the battery efficiency and depth of discharge respectively. Due to
relatively availability of sunlight in Owerri throughout the year, one (1) day autonomy was
chosen for this project. The day of autonomy is the desired number of days the battery will
provide power during periods of low solar generation or in case of power outages.
29.16 ×1
battery capacity = =2.38 kAh
0.85 × 0.6 ×24
For the PV system to comfortably handle the energy consumption in the HOD’s section and
other offices of the department, a 2.38 kAh battery capacity is required for the system.
Equation 3.2 was utilized in calculating the field efficiency of the installed PV system. This is
given by
Maximum Possible Energy Output = Rated Capacity x Total Hours of Direct Sunlight
3.2 kW × 5 ×30
∴ field efficiency = × 100 %=71.42 %
672
For a one month period the field efficiency for the installed PV system was obtained to be
71.42%.
Chapter Five
Due to the perpetual lack of electricity supply in the Department of Physics, Federal University
of Technology Owerri, and the associated air and noise pollution with the use of fossil based
system. The system comprised of the solar panels, the charge controller, inverter and battery
storage system. From the energy calculations 29.16 kWh/day is consumed between the HOD’s
section of the department and other offices. The battery capacity required to meet up with this
energy need was estimated at 2.38 kAh capacity while the total field efficiency for the actual
energy consumption of the department and it is recommended, that the next set of students
Reference