Feasibility Study of Solar Power in Singapore

EEE07

Pang Kai Lin

River Valley High School

Rationale

High and rising electricity

consumption

No other viable renewable

sources of energy

Decreasing LCOE

generated via PV energy

conversion

Rationale

High and rising electricity

consumption

• Singapore is ranked 51 out of 220 for

electricity consumption

• Electricity consumption increased 2.6 times

over the past 17 years

• A recorded consumption of 48.6TWh in 2017

Rationale

No other viable renewable

sources of energy

• Low wind speeds

• Narrow tidal range

• Lack of river system

• Small land area and high population

density

Solar irradiance received is 50% more than temperate countries

SINGAPORE

Rationale

Decreasing LCOE

generated via PV energy

conversion

• Cost of solar energy declined over past three years

• LCOE will decrease from $0.27/kWh to $0.11/kWh

in 2020

• Facilitates transformation of energy systems into

sustainable solar energy

Aims

Prominence of solar energy

as a power source currently

and in the future

Factors affecting

performance of a PV cell

Aims

Factors affecting

performance of a PV cell

Prominence of solar

energy

Solar Irradiance

Ambient

Temperature

Load Resistance

Projected Annual Output

Factors Affecting Performance of PV cell

Matlab Simulation

Varying solar irradiance starting

from 0W/m to 1200W/m ,

ambient temperature constant

at 25˚C

Plotting I-V and P-V curves of the PV array module from Sun Power T5-SPR-

315E

2 2

Varying temperature starting

from 20˚C to 40˚C, solar

irradiance constant at 1000W/m2

Matlab Simulation

MPPT Technique:

Incremental

conductance

• Determine exact

value of MPP instead

of oscillating

• Able to track rapidly

changing irradiance

Cell temperature is affected

independently by ambient

temperature and solar

irradiance

Solar Irradiance

• Solar irradiance has significant impact on

performance of PV cell

• Effect of intermittency, where solar

irradiance cannot be ignored

• Cloud cover ranges from 24% to 91% in

Singapore

• Global average trend suggests a small

decline in the total cloud cover 0.4% per

decade

Ambient Temperature

• Ambient temperature does not have

significant impact on performance of PV

cell

• An average rise of 0.25ºC per decade is

predicted in Singapore with temperatures

varying from 23 ºC to 33 ºC, it would not

have significant impact on the energy

output of the PV system.

Load Resistance

1. Ensure that solar irradiance is kept

constant at around 556W/m2

2. Ensure that the ambient temperature is

kept constant at 28.0℃ using a non-

contact thermometer

3. Resistance of the variable resistor was

varied between 5 Ω and 9 Ω

4. At each value, the voltage and current

output of the PV cell was measured

5. The above steps were repeated three

times and average reading was taken

Pyranometer

Multimeter

Variable Resistor

Load Resistance

• Optimal resistance of the load to maximize

output power is about 6.32Ω, close to

internal resistance of PV panel at 7.2Ω

• In agreement with Maximum Power

Transfer Theorem

Projected Annual Output

Projected Annual Output

1. The experiment was conducted on a clear,

sunny day with little cloud cover

2. Readings were taken half-hourly during the

peak sun hours, from 9.00am – 6.00pm

3. Solar irradiance, ambient temperature and

output voltage and current were measured

respectively. The resistance of the load is

fixed at 7.0 Ω.

4. Steps 1 and 2 were repeated on two other

days and average half hourly readings

were taken.

5. Projected annual energy output of the PV

cell was calculated.

Pyranometer

Multimeter

Variable Resistor

Projected Annual Output

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Current against Time

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Voltage against Time

Projected Annual Output

• Maximum available space for PV installations in

Singapore is around 45 km2

• Dimension of the PV cell used is 1.05m by 0.38m

• Total of 1.13 x 108 PV cells can be placed

• Total projected annual energy output of the entire

PV system will be 8.23TWh

17% of Singapore’s total annual energy

consumption

Conclusion

To optimize performance of PV

system:

• Maximal solar irradiance

• Negligible impact of ambient

temperature

• Maximum Power Transfer

Theorem

Projecting into the

future:

• Predicted reduction

in cloud cover in the

future also suggests

that intermittency

might become less of

a problem

Prominence of solar energy:

• Solar energy cannot be the

main or sole source of

energy

• Singapore needs to

consider importing power

from the utility grid in order

to continuously maintain

energy balance

Limitations

Less accurate as compared to

experimental variation:

• Weather conditions could not be

varied or kept constant

• Light intensity indoors is too low

Invalid assumptions in calculating

projected annual output :

• Different cloud cover at different

locations on different timings

• Varying lengths of monsoon

seasons

• Orientation of PV panels

Future Work

Severity of Intermittency Optimal Tilt Angle Effect of Shading

Thank You!

Perturbation and Observation Algorithm

Incremental Conductance

Projected Annual Output Time Temperature/℃ Solar Irradiance/

W m2

Voltage/V Current/A Energy/kWh

9.00am 33.4 298 10.78 1.542 0.00831

9.30am 32.9 489 11.07 1.689 0.00935

10.00am 33.0 550 12.78 1.867 0.0119

10.30am 34.7 543 12.19 1.865 0.0114

11.00am 35.8 579 12.29 1.873 0.0115

11.30am 37.0 545 12.17 1.807 0.0110

12.00pm 36.1 712 12.30 1.873 0.0115

12.30pm 35.0 745 12.39 1.869 0.0116

1.00pm 36.0 800 13.05 1.874 0.0122

1.30pm 35.7 857 13.18 2.004 0.0132

2.00pm 34.5 723 12.58 1.903 0.0120

2.30pm 33.2 734 12.26 1.863 0.0114

3.00pm 32.6 845 11.80 1.782 0.0105

3.30pm 32.6 712 11.08 1.686 0.00934

4.00pm 32.4 587 11.79 1.589 0.00937

4.30pm 33.0 578 11.26 1.512 0.00851

5.00pm 33.7 601 12.33 1.679 0.0104

5.30pm 33.6 439 11.29 1.583 0.00894

6.00pm 33.8 241 10.07 1.409 0.00709