Comparative Performance Analysis of Differently Oriented Photovoltaic Modules for Sustainable and Efficient Land Utilization: A Case Study of the 6.5 Mwp Solar Power Plant

Authors:
  • SMSani Moussa Kadri Moussa Moussa
    Sani Moussa Kadri Moussa Moussa
  • EAEunice Akyereko-Adjei
    Eunice Akyereko-Adjei
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Abstract
Solar energy mitigates greenhouse gas emissions, but large photovoltaic installations compete with food crops for land, raising sustainability concerns for future generations. This paper presents an alternative orientation of a ground-mounted photovoltaic system for sustainable and efficient land utilization. The study combined simulation and field tests of a grid-tied solar PV system to compare East-West and South orientations. The comparative analysis was based on land utilization and performance parameters such as performance ratio, yearly energy injected into the grid, normalized energy, CO2 emission balance, global incident in collector plane, yield simulation and power losses of different types, namely, temperature, internal network and power electronics were also determined. Study focused on a 6.5 MWp solar PV plant located at Lawra, Ghana. The simulation results confirmed that the South orientation receives a higher global incidence of 2116.5kWh/m2/year compared to 2042kWh/m2/year for the East-West orientation. Consequently, in terms of annual energy injected into the power grid, the south orientation yielded 11339MWh/y compared to the 10943MWh/y injected by the East-West orientation. It was evident that under similar conditions, the East-West orientation produced 396MWh/y less than the south orientation. However, the East-West orientation was found to be the best option in terms of sustainable land use. The East-West orientation saved 28% of the total land used by the south orientation. Therefore, when installed to fit a specified space, the net annual energy injected into the power grid by the East-West orientation is 3904.83MWh/year which is 34.4% more of the power produced by the south orientation.