Design optimization of solar power system with respect to temperature and sun tracking

Abstract

Solar panels work best in certain weather conditions, but the weather is changing always, so most panels do not operate under ideal conditions. Design optimization of photovoltaic (PV) modules with changing in the environmental parameters, such as solar irradiance and temperature is presented in this work for Kirkuk city based on HOMER software. Our system consists of series-parallel combination of solar PV panels, maximum power point tracking controller (MPPT), batteries and converter. Four case studies using different types of sun tracking systems considering temperature effects were presented. The optimum system design which has the minimum cost of energy (COE) and total net present cost (NPC) was achieved when we adopt two-axis tracking system. Both NPC and COE were found inversely proportion with temperature coefficient of power, and direct proportion with operating cell temperature.