Photovoltaics System Design and Practice

This book gives a broad overview to the topic before looking at solar radiation and its energy potential. The design and operation of solar cells are treated in detail, but only so far as it is necessary to understand operation and possible operational problems of photovoltaic (PV) plants and to appreciate possible further technical developments and improvements in the future. The layout and construction of entire photovoltaic plants (both stand-alone and grid-connected systems) are covered in one chapter. The methods and procedures for the design of stand-alone systems and calculation of the yield of grid-connected PV plants with pocket calculators or readily available standard software programs are also shown. For many locations in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the rest of Europe, North America and Asia, the data that are needed for such calculations can be found in the book. For some grid-connected PV plants detailed, long-term monitoring data that were measured over many years (up to 14 years) are provided. Unique to this book, lightening and overvoltage protection of PV plants is reported, as is a normalized representation of energy yield and power of PV plants. The book concludes with a summary and a look toward the future of this technology.

Keywords: Wind & Solar Energy, PV plant, PV array, grid tied solar, solar power plant, grid connected solar, standalone solar, solar power, solar panels, PV panels, solar inverter