Bengt Stridh

Profitability of PV electricity in Sweden

The Swedish PV market is still limited compared to many other countries in Europe. However, the growth is strong. 19 MW was installed in 2013 showing that the market more than doubled during 2013 in comparison to 2012. Hence there is of interest to more in detail study the profitability of PV electricity in Sweden for grid connected PV systems, to understand how competitive PV is on the Swedish market. LCOE and payback period are presented for a PV system that is installed to replace retail electricity with PV electricity. Both the cases of private residential systems and of non-private systems are considered.

Impact of PV module mismatch on the PV array energy yield and comparison of module, string and central MPPT

With PV technology advancing in high pace the need for better understanding solar cell behavior from component up to system level is evident. Electrical mismatch between solar cells and thus PV modules is one effect that has not been studied extensively. In addition, several techniques for reducing the mismatch losses have been developed, such as distributed MPPT and module sorting. Therefore, a study of mismatch losses will be presented along with a comparative study of the different mismatch mitigation techniques.

Evaluation of economical benefit of cleaning of soiling and snow in PV plants at three European locations

Energy loss due to soiling is one of the most important factors than can be influenced by the operator during the life of a PV plant. Snow cover can be seen as a special case of soiling applicable in countries with colder climate. A break-even analysis between energy loss due to soiling and cleaning cost was conducted for a 1 MW plant by modeling with PVsyst for three different European locations, considering both fixed tilt angle and with 2-axis tracking. As basis for net present value calculations feed-in tariffs, consumer price or spot price for electricity was used.

Power quality experiences from Sweden's first MW photovoltaics park and impact on LV planning

The first 1 MW PV park in Sweden was installed in 2014. A concern from the grid owner perspective is how the growing number of PV installations will influence the power quality in their grids. The power quality impact from the 1 MW park was demonstrated to fall within the regulating limitations in EIFS 2013:1 for the following aspects: voltage changes, voltage harmonics, interharmonics, and voltage unbalance. However, the slow voltage variations were exceeding the Swedish industry recommendations (AMP) governing a single production source. This deviation occurred during 0.74% of the studied two-month period. To meet AMP recommendations it would have been necessary to install a separate cable intended only for the solar park itself and connected closer to the substation. Perhaps a more appropriate alternative would have been to connect the solar park on the closest 20 kV grid.

PV system layout for optimized self-consumption

With decreasing subsidies for PV systems, increased self-consumption of PV electricity could improve the profitability of grid-connected residential PV systems. Self-consumption is in this paper de ...