Electricity output analysis of a small photovoltaic power plant

Nowadays, more than ever, the renewable sources of energy are highly exploited in order to sustain the electricity consumption worldwide. The increasing presence of these renewable source's based power plants had actually changed the structure of the power system itself, leading to new challenges in terms of power system's operation. The photovoltaic conversion of the solar energy is of great interest and this sector witnessed a significant development in the last decade. Consequently, a 4.32 kW photovoltaic power plant was developed at the Electrical Engineering Faculty of Iasi, Romania, for both research and didactic activities and also for supplying several loads. Along with this paper the photovoltaic power plant's efficiency is analyzed, determining the energy output throughout several time intervals.