INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH Farhadi, et al., Vol. 1, Issue. 3, pp.

179- 183, 2012

Feasibility Study of a Photovoltaic Power Station in the Parsabad Moghan City, Iran
* Payam Farhadi , Mohammad Karimi, Bahman Moradi and Mahmood Hosseini

Department of Electrical Engineering, Parsabad Moghan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Parsabad Moghan, Iran *Corresponding Author: pfarhadi@iaupmogan.ac.ir load. The city of Parsabad Moghan as the hottest city in Ardabil province located in northwest of Iran has a distinguished climate in Ardabil province as the coldest province in Iran, because usually there is a minimum 10 centigrades degree difference between Parsabad Moghan city and Ardabil city. Parsabad Moghan has a great potential to benefit solar energy to produce electricity such that there is an average solar radiation of 4kWh/m2 and the average 2500 h solar radiation in a year. For the aforementioned reasons, we tried to evaluate the capability of the city to enjoy renewable energy resources to use in large farms and gardens for which this city is thriving [2-5]. Parsabad Moghan is famous for its distinguishing agricultural potentials. Since farms need to huge amount of power for pumping, irrigation, ventilation and other applications, it would be useful to enjoy solar energy to produce total or at least a fraction of utilization electric power. Rest of the paper is organized as follows: in Section II, photovoltaic system applications are included. Then, climate data related to Parsabad Moghan city and its analysis are reported in Section III. Section IV describes obtained technical and economical results of study, and implementation of a typical PV system was analyzed on a sample home. After that, economical and feasibility analysis of PV systems are summarized. Finally, in Section V, a brief conclusion is included.

AbstractDue to the fossil fuel resources decline and ever increasing attentions to climate change and environmental issues, many countries are seeking renewable energy sources to meet electricity demand in future. Photovoltaic systems are widely using for standalone or grid supply. In this paper, feasibility of photovoltaic system implementing and operation in Parsabad Moghan City, as one of the main scattered agricultural regions in northwest of Iran is evaluated. Since this city has the great potential to use solar energies, and also by the elimination of subsides from electricity cost (in 2011) resulting in remarkable increase in electricity cost it can be good idea to produce electricity by own and less rely on grid power. Practical results show that photovoltaic systems can be implemented in Parsabad Moghan City beneficially if utilized in large mass.
Index TermsCost reduction, Local climate, Photovoltaic system, Parsabad Moghan City.

I. INTRODUCTION
Due to the fossil fuel resources decline and their great share in environmental pollution and issues, many countries and researchers are looking for green energy resources based on each regions potentials. So far many kind of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and others are utilized for power generation. In general, to meet electricity demand and to cope with environmental problems using green energies there are two steps: first, finding renewable energy resources in a special region, second, to utilize these energy resources economically and efficiently [1]. Photovoltaic (PV) energy generating systems (or PV systems) convert the suns energy directly into electricity using state-of-the-art semiconductor materials. PV systems vary in complexity. Some are called standalone or off-grid systems, which mean they are the sole source of power to a home, water pump or other
Manuscript Received June 10, 2012; Revised June 28, 2012; Accepted June 30, 2012.

II. PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM APPLICATIONS

Generally, photovoltaic system applications are divided into three groups: grid-connected applications, off-grid applications and back-up applications [6]. Design of grid-connected applications is such that the system is working while it is connected to the power grid. There is a bilateral connection between PV system and power grid. If the generated power by PV is more than consumer demand, the excessive power is injected into 179

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH Farhadi, et al., Vol. 1, Issue. 3, pp. 179- 183, 2012

the power grid. In contrast, during night or periods in which PV system could not meet the consumers demand, power grid helps PV systems butteries, if any, to supply consumers. For off-grid or stand-alone systems, a bank of battery should be integrated on system to supply power in lack of solar radiations [7]. For Parsabad Moghan city case, either grid connected or off-grid photovoltaic systems can be utilized. Schematic diagrams for these systems are depicted in Figure. 1.

III. LOCATION INFORMATION FOR PARSABAD MOGHAN CITY

The first step in this paper was to gather the relevant information on the location and purpose of the system such as latitude and longitude, weather data (monthly average sunlight levels, ambient and maximum temperatures, rainfall, maximum wind speeds, other extreme weather conditions), constraints on system installation (tilt angle, orientation, risk of shading), nature of load(s), likely load profile (daily, annual variation), request reliability and likelihood of increase of demand. To design and evaluate solar energy utilization for electric power generation, the weather information of site is of great importance for planning and implementing PV systems. The efficiency of photovoltaic panels is depending on the weather condition, placement and orientation. A typical solar panel can produce 5 times and 3 times of rated electric power in summer and winter, respectively. The number of cloudy days, wind blow and its speed to determine the strength of steel structure, amount of rains, and the height of snow to determine the height of PV panels from the earth surface, the amount of humidity and many other factors should be taken to the account in designing and implementation of PV systems. The other significant factor is the angle of PV panels. Orientation for PV systems is an important issue. By appropriate orientation, one can get 70% of maximum power. If the installing place is on north hemisphere solar arrays should be oriented to the south and vice versa. Data acquired from Parsabad Moghan weather station give us the following information: Latitude 39.65, Longitude: 47.91 and Altitude: 32. The optimum array orientation will depend on the latitude of the site. It is generally accepted that, for low latitudes, the maximum annual output is obtained when array tilt angle is roughly equal to the latitude angle and the array faces due south (in the northern hemisphere). To get the annual maximum power and minimum maintenance, solar arrays in Parsabad Moghan should be orientated to the south. Although, panels angle are not changed monthly (for better performance it should be changed monthly), however we could use the angle amounts calculated for 180

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of (a) stand-alone photovoltaic system, (b) grid-connected photovoltaic system.

If an autonomous system is required, the PV system must provide sufficient electricity to supply the loads even under the worst conditions. The system sizing is usually carried out for the month that represents the worst conditions in terms of the combination of high load-levels and low sunlight conditions. For such PV system, the average daily electrical output should match or exceed the average daily load. If this is not the case, then the PV array size must be increased. For a grid connected system, it is not usually necessary to meet a particular load but usually to contribute to the general electricity supply. The system sizing is therefore not often governed by the size of the load, but by other constraints such as area available for the system and the budget available for its purchase and installation.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH Farhadi, et al., Vol. 1, Issue. 3, pp. 179- 183, 2012

Irans provinces in [6]. The monthly average sun radiation per hour for Parsabad Moghan is given in Table I. According to the table, the average sun radiation is more than 8 hours per a day; however the radiations can be 11 hours in summer. It is worth to note that because Parsabad Moghan city is popular for agricultural lands around the country also as a city with having hot weather even in the winter, its total electric energy usage for cooling and agricultural purposes such as pumping and other are much more, and it could be very helpful that we do not only rely on electric power supplied by grid power and produce a fracture of utilization electric power. For better understanding, Table I is illustrated in Figure 2. The average energy received in a day per square meter is given in Table II.
TABLE I. MONTHLY AVERAHGE SUN RADIATION PER HOUR IN PARSABAD MOGHAN CITY [4] The monthly average sun radiation (h ) 5.6 6.5 7 7.2 8.5 11 10.9 11 8.5 7.8 6.7 5.9

TABLE II. Month January February March April May June July August September October November December

AVERAHGE ENERGY RECEIVED IN A DAY PER M

2

[4]

Received Energy (kWh/m /day) 4.40 5.20 5.35 5.40 5.60 6.20 6.25 5.30 5.20 5.05 4.20 4.35

Month January February March April May June July August September October November December

IV. TECHNICAL AND ECONOMICAL ANALYSIS OF A TYPICAL PV SYSTEMS IN PARSABAD MOGHAN CITY
The average electric power utilization by a house in Parsabad Moghan city is 300kWh per month. Due to the new electric power tariffs imposed after government subside elimination; each house should pay 225000 Rials (or 18 dollars) for the monthly bill. Now if we want to supply this 300kWh using PV systems the following actions should be done. To calculate the rated cost of a simple PV system, one of the parameters should be considered is the effective life time of each component operating under certain condition. Also, during this life time we should calculate how the time is allotted for maintenance, therefore maintenance cost and component replacements are considered. Table III shows the lifetime of components used in PV system. If the PV system needs to supply AC loads, then an inverter must be included to convert the DC output of the PV array to the AC output required by the load. As with PV systems, inverters can be broadly divided into two types, including: standalone and grid-connected. For many PV system applications, particularly stand-alone, electrical power is required from system during hours of darkness or period of poor weather. In this case storage must be added to the system. Typically, this is in the form of a battery bank of an appropriate size to meet the demand when the PV array is unable to provide sufficient power.

12 11 Time (h) 10 9 8 7 6 5

Month

Figure 2. The monthly average sun radiation per hour for Parsabad Moghan.

Ju ly Au gu st Se pt em be r O ct ob er No ve m be De r ce m be r

ry Fe br ua ry

M ar ch

Ap ril

Ja nu a

ay M

Ju

ne

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH Farhadi, et al., Vol. 1, Issue. 3, pp. 179- 183, 2012

TABLE III.

MONTHLY AVERAHGE SUN RADIATION PER HOUR IN PARSABAD MOGHAN CITY [4] Maintenance period Inspection on connections and cells breakdown 6 months 4 months Life time (yr) 10 to 15 (conventional) 20 (advance) 20 to 25 15 20

Device Solar cell Panel Acid Battery Inverter

Now consider a house with 300kWh utilization, i.e. 10 kWh per day. We need the sun radiation in 1 hour on a 10kW PV system or 8 hour radiation on a 1.25kW PV system. This means that the more is the sun radiation (in hour), the less is the PV size (in kW). Since the average sun radiation in Parsabad Moghan city is more than 8 hours per day, we can figure out the size of PV systems. However, it is possible that there is not continuous sun radiation during this average 8 hours, hence to increase the reliability we consider 8 hours not more, in addition a battery bank is considered to be used at night. The used PV characteristic is given in Table IV.
TABLE IV. UN-E-235(EI) Rated Power Current at maximum power Voltage at maximum power Short circuit current Open circuit voltage Dimensions Weight Cost PV SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS Rated values 0.235 kW 7.84 A 30 V 8.6 A 37 V 46*994*1652 (1.64 m ) 20kg 520 $
2

Now, by considering 15% increase, it is expected that, after 9 years the invested cost (3200$) will be returned to us and after that all power production is completely free for us. It is important to note that using PV systems individually is not so much lucrative; however by group PVs we can enjoy green and less expensive electricity. Finally, authors believe that by ever decreasing PV systems cost and money making of these systems, more attentions will be allotted to this systems in Parsabad Moghan city. Also, using these PVs for agricultural and cooling reasons can be really a good choice.

V. CONCLUSION
Due to the inexhaustible nature of solar energy in world, many attentions have been paid to the green energy resources. PV cells have social and commercial value only when they are used in a system to provide a service. In this paper, feasibility of PV systems for individual utilization in Parsabad Moghan city was studied technically and economically. It was obtained that due to the geotropic situation and good sun radiations in this region we can use PV systems to generate the electric power. Also, it was obtained that using this system can be lucrative, and the capital cost will be returned to us about 9 years later. Finally, authors believe that by more advancement in PV systems and ever decreasing in PV systems device costs, more attentions and utilization will be paid to PVs in Parsabad Moghan City in future.

REFERENCES
[1] Birzhandi M., Sarjoei A. and Shams Solary E., Feasibility and Economic Justification of Photovoltaic System in Esfahan. Proc. 17th Electric Power Distribution Conf erence, EPDC 2012, Tehran, Iran 2012. [2] M. Sojoudi, R. Madatov, T. Sojoudi and P. Farhadi. Achieving Steady and Stable Energy from AlGaAsGaAs Solar Cells. ETASR Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 1, N. 6, p.p. 151-154, 2011. [3] Brian N. Farhi, James P. Dunlop, PE. Photovoltaics & Distributed
Generation ; www.fsec.ucf.edu;2002.

According to the abovementioned devices and related points and cost, the final cost for 300 kWh utilization by PV system is 40000000 Rials (or 3200$). However, this cost can be declined using low cost devices. Now, to estimate the time for investment return using this PV system and by considering that each year there is a 15% increase in electricity tariffs, we have, Total cost of PV system=40000000 Rials (or 3200 $) Monthly cost of electricity=225000 Rials (or 18 $) Annual cost of electricity=225000 Rials (or 216 $)

[4] Data of Weather bureau of Parsabad Moghan City in 2011, Parsabad Moghan, Iran, 2011. [5] Mohammad Sadegh Zabihi M., Sarjoei Evaluation of optimum technical and economical condition of Photovoltaic System in Architecture. Proc. 1st Optimization of fuel consumption in Iran , Tehran, Iran, 2002. [6] Ali Akbar Golkar M. and Modarresi J. Determining the optimum angle of solar panels to reach the maximum

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH Farhadi, et al., Vol. 1, Issue. 3, pp. 179- 183, 2012

radiation on distribution networks in Irans cities. Proc. 17th Electric Power Distribution Conference, EPDC 2012, Tehran, Iran 2012.

[7] Salem Nia A. and Talebi S. M. Feasibility of Supplying a House with Zero Energy in Sahara (case study TAbas City th in Iran). Proc. 17 Electric Power Distribution Conference, EPDC 2012, Tehran, Iran 2012.

Payam Farhadi was born in 1985. He received the B.Sc. and M.S.c degrees in Electrical Engineering with major in Power Electric from the IAU, Ardabil and Ahar branch in 2009 and 2011, respectively. He is a faculty member in electrical engineering department at the Parsabad Moghan Branch-IAU. Also he is an elite member of Young Researchers Club in Iran. Mr. Farhadi has published more than 40 papers in journals and conference proceedings. His research interests include distributed generation, distribution system planning and optimization and renewable energies. Mohammad Karimi was born in 1983. He received the B.Sc. and M.S.c degrees in Electrical Engineering with major in Power Electric from the IAU, Ardabil and Ahar branch in 2009 and 2011, respectively. He is working as an instructor at Parsabad Moghan Branch-IAU. Mr. Karimi is mainly working on distributed generation, distribution system planning and optimization and renewable energies. Bahman Moradi was born in 1989. He is pursuing his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering with major in Power Electric from the IAU, Parsabad Moghan. His researches interests include are renewable energies especially solar and wind energies. Mahmood Hosseini was born in 1979. He received the B.Sc. , M.S.c and Phd degrees in Physical Geography in 2001, 2004 and 2012, respectively. He is working as an Assistant Professor at Parsabad Moghan Branch-IAU. Mr. Hosseini is mainly working on geomorphology, hydrology and Climate changes.

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