Design and Optimization of Roof Top Solar Power Plants for a Carbon Neutral Campus

Abstract

The conventional sources of energy are depleting all over the world. Moreover, they cause pollution, global warming and climate change. Thus the energy needs of future rely on renewable sources of energy. It is important that we need to transit our energy usage from conventional sources of energy to renewable sources of energy. Out of the renewable energy resources, solar energy is most abundant and cheap and hence it is to be extracted for our energy needs. Govt. of Kerala along with Agency of Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT) has been decided to install Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) panels on the roof top of Kerala University, Kariavattom campus. The yearly energy consumption of the campus has been collected from the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). Roof top SPV plant of 1.6MWp has been designed using the software tool PVsyst. The proposed design has been optimized and finally the design has been environmentally and economically analyzed using the software tool RETScreen to find out whether the design is environmentally and economically feasible. The complete design, optimization, analysis of 1.6MWp roof top solar plant has been carried out.