Study of a grid-tied photovoltaic system in Caruaru using PVsyst and Skelion

In Brazil, according to Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica (ANEEL), on the year of 2017 the wind power was responsible for 7 % of the country electric installed capacity, on the other hand the solar power was responsible for only 0,25 % of the electric installed capacity. This data illustrates the contrast of investment on these two types of energy production. The present work consists of evaluating the technical and economic viability of a grid connected photovoltaic system localized in the city of Caruaru, which belongs to the state of Pernambuco. The system are foreseen to be formed with 20 photovoltaic modules of 260 W power rate each, and an inverter of 4,600 W power rate, connected in a 220 V grid. For the technical evaluation, it was used the software's: SketchUp, with a specific plug-in develop for photovoltaic generation called Skelion, and PVsyst. SketchUp was used to build a three-dimensional design model of the photovoltaic project. With the software's Skelion and PVsyst it was possible to obtain the prediction of energy generation for the photovoltaic system and its effectiveness losses. As technical results, the horizontal solar irradiation of the project installation local was about 1900 kWh/m
²
per year. An average generation of 623.7 kWh per month was estimated with Skelion, meanwhile with PVsyst the average generation obtain was 624.0 kWh per month. Comparing the annual averages of the software's energy generation, the standard deviation found was of 0.25 kWh. On the financial evaluation it was determinate, with the software Microsoft Excel 2016, the following viability rating criteria: Internal Rate of Return (IRT), Simple Payback (SP) and Return On Investment (ROI). The results obtained where 5,7 % for the IRT, 11 years for de SP and − 11,7 %, which is equivalent to R$ 33.554 for the EOI. Therefore, an investment in the photovoltaic system studied was considered unviable considering its long term to obtain a significant profit, and because its ROI is negative.