Design, simulation and financial analysis of stand-alone photovoltaic system at university of missouri-kansas city, Missouri, USA

This article focuses on design, performance and financial analysis of stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system to meet the daily light energy demand of Flarsheim Hall at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). PV array of the system will be installed on the roof of the Rock Hill parking garage while the rest of the major system components e.g. battery, charge controller, inverter and transformer will be placed in the basement of the Flarsheim Hall building. The method of designing stand-alone PV system involves selecting major and balance of system (BOS) components with proper specification and weather related factors to conform the load. To simplify the design procedure in term of reliability and cost, computer based tools were utilized. Free PV modeling and simulation tools e.g. System Advisory Model (SAM) and PVwatts were used to design and optimize the system. System performance was simulated as well as financial analysis was carried out for a combination of PV array, battery storage, inverter and load of the system. The simulation results showed that the initial installation cost would be high, but within short period of time, it would not only return the initial installation amount, but also help gain significant disbursement through the lifetime of the system.