Long-Term Analysis of the Usability and Performance of Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

The PVF-Chart method consists of a combination of correlations and fundamental expressions for the hourly calculations of solar radiation at a given location. It uses long-term monthly average solar radiation and ambient temperature to predict the annual performance of a photovoltaic array. The chapter aims to analyse the long-term performances of a PV system used to cover an individual household situated in different Algerian climatic zones. The obtained results are compared to those presented in the literature and from which it can be concluded that the developed software program permits to calculate the PV system performances with a good exactitude which confirm its uses as a tool to analyse the long-term performance of PV system at any climate where only the monthly mean daily weather data is available. From these later, the hourly, the daily, and the annual performance of a photovoltaic array are predicted. For the preliminary assessment of the energy-producing of the studied PV project, the LCOE was calculated for three interest rates and two lifetimes.