Investigation on the Role of Super Capacitors in Standalone PV System

As grid transmission difficulties is increased in rural areas so the standalone PV system has become a better option to power smaller rural areas. The main contribution of standalone PV system is the energy storage system (ESS) which reduces the intermittency effects at the solar farm. Though, batteries are the commonly used ESS, they are susceptible to low lifetime with increased maintenance cost. In such case, supercapacitors are considered for the better alternative. The role of capacitors in the standalone PV system have been investigated in this paper using Matlab/Simulink and hardware. It is observed that the supercapacitors help to improve the battery lifecycle.