Energy Production Trade-offs Photovoltaic System Design

Résumé du livre

The energy per unit area produced annually by a photovoltaic system is a function of collector efficiency and incident solar radiation. The incident energy is determined by geographic location and type of mounting structure: fixed or tracking. Because of significant differences in the solar energy available to various structure and tracking concepts, it is possible to achieve equal energy cost for widely varying array field prices. Our analysis (using recent estimates for balance -of -system costs) of several array options shows that two -axis tracking of flat -panel collectors results in lower energy cost than do fixed arrays, even at low module prices. We also show that concentrating collector modules and flat -plate modules achieve the same energy cost at similar cost per square meter.