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
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