School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy
Engineering
SOLA2540 Applied Photovoltaics
SOLA9001 Photovoltaics
Stand Alone PV System Design
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Weighting
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Due date
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Submission
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Deliverable 1:
Preliminary design report
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15%
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4 April 2025
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Report and MS Excel PV system design program via Moodle
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Deliverable 2:
PV system design presentation
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30%
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22-24 April 2025
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Presentation
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Deliverable 3: PV system design
report
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55%
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5 May 2025
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Report and MS Excel PV system design program via Moodle
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Deliverable 4: Reflection
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Satisfactory
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5 May 2025
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Report via Moodle
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Huddle requirements: You must demonstrate a satisfactory performance on this assessment. A minimum mark of 60% must be obtained this assessment in order to pass the course. You may re-submit the final report until a satisfactory performance is achieved. Your total mark for this assessment will be capped at 60% for the re-submitted work.
1. Overview:
The aim of this assignment is to provide stand-alone photovoltaic system design experience. You will design PV system for a given project using the design principles and procedures you have learned in this course.
This activity is linked to the course learning outcomes LO2 to LO6 and addresses these Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competency Standard for Professional Engineer: PE1.3, PE1.5, PE2.1, PE2.2, PE2.3, PE3.2, PE3.3 and PE3.6.
2. Project description:
Consider you are a part of the design team in a reputed PV system design and installation company. You have been tasked to design a stand-alone PV system to address specific requirements of a customer. You can find your project based on your zID and weather data of the project location on the course Moodle site.
The task includes:
• Development of PV system design program based on MS Excel. The program should be able to perform. at least the following tasks:
o calculate average daily Wh and Ah load for the given load specification;
o calculate the battery size for the given days of autonomy;
o calculate solar insolation (direct and diffuse) on the PV module at a given tilt angle;
o calculate the energy generated by the PV array each day;
o calculate the battery state of charge at the end of each day;
o has ability to optimise tilt angle and PV array size; and
o sizing and selection of other components such as charge controller and inverter as necessary.
• Design of PV system: Using the Excel program that you have developed, design a PV system. You should design for two scenarios: (i) Rooftop installation of PV array considering roof tilt and orientation (assume there is sufficient roof space), (ii) Ground mounted system with optimum tilt angle and orientation for PV array.
• Sizing and selection PV system components: Size and select suitable PV components such as modules, battery, battery charge controller and inverter. Provide justification for your selections (for example on the basis of cost, reliability, availability, maintenance requirements) and give at least two other alternatives. Note: different combinations of battery and PV sizes may satisfy the design requirements.
• Drawing system layout: Select appropriate cable size (AS/NZS 3000) and draw line diagram (AS/NZS 5033).
• Pricing the system: Price the total cost of the system including the cost of the components you will use, cost of installation and your company’s margin (20%). Use local labour rate to estimate installation cost. Ignore the cost of the real estate.
• Financial analysis: Calculate payback period and levelised cost of energy (LCOE). Compare the LOCE with the cost of electricity from diesel generator.
3. Assessment:
o Deliverable 1: Preliminary design report (15%): This document should demonstrate the evidence of progress made on the execution of the project. It should include current version of your MS Excel PV system design program which has to be functional but not necessarily complete and polished at this stage. The report must maximum 4 A4 pages long (any pages beyond this page limit will not be marked). Imagine that you are presenting this report to the client and/ or manager, so it has to be clear and concise. [See Appendix A for marking criteria]
o Deliverable 2: PV system design presentation (30%): The presentation should demonstrate detail PV system design. This should include complete PV system design including load analysis, component sizing and selection and economic analysis. You should also have Excel PV system design program ready for demonstration. The presentation will be 10-15 minutes. [See Appendix B for marking criteria]
o Deliverable 3: PV system design report (55%): The final report should report detail PV system design including economic analysis. It should include load analysis, sizing and selection of system components, system layout and economic analysis. You should also submit the final version of the Excel PV system design program. The report must be a maximum of 12 A4 pages long (excluding references). You can attach technical details such as datasheet of PV components as appendices. These will not be counted towards the above page limit. [See Appendix C for marking criteria]
o Deliverable 4: Reflection (Satisfactory): You should reflect on the project and what you did, what you have learned about Stand Alone PV system design while completing this project and how you are going to be able to use it in the future. It should be clear and concise. It should be a maximum of 2 A4 pages long. You must demonstrate satisfactory performance (50% or above). [See Appendix D for marking criteria]
4. Resources:
Some useful resources are listed below however there are a lot of online resources available.
• Weather data: Course Moodle site (“Weather data” folder)
• LCC, LCOE: Course Moodle site, NREL LCOE calculator (https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/tech-lcoe.html).
• AS/NZS 4509.2:2010: Stand-alone power systems System design Standards Australia