Answer to Question #233237 in Mechanical Engineering for Molahlegi

Question

Design a standalone (off grid) Photovoltaic (PV) system with special reference to the village in South Africa with 7 PV panel generation factors

Answer 1

Standalone or Off-Grid Systems:

The off-grid system term states the system not relating to the gird facility. Primarily, the system which is not connected to the main electrical grid is term an off-grid PV system (Weis, 2013). The off-grid system also called standalone systems or mini-grid which can generate the power and run the appliances by themselves.

Designing an Off-Grid PV System :

1. Site assessment
2. Energy Calculations
3. Panel Sizing
4. Battery Sizing

Battery Capacity (Ah) = (Total Watt-hours per day used by appliances x Days of autonomy )/ (0.85 x 0.6 x nominal battery voltage)

5. Inverter

Inverter deals with the following main tasks of energy: (ALTE store, n.d.) 

• Convert DC from PV module to AC
• Ensure that the cycle of alternating current cycles is 60 cycles
• Reduce voltage variations
• Ensure that the condition of the AC waveform is suitable for the application.

6. Charge Controller