Methodology to Design and Validate a Sustainable Isolated Solar Photovoltaic System

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology for designing an affordable photovoltaic solar school system installed on an island in the Colombian Pacific Coast, without power grid connection. After meeting with the community to identify their energetic needs, design begins by evaluating social, political and economic community issues and determining a load table, to calculate the power and energy consumed by the school in a regular day. Then, the solar array, electronic devices and batteries bank is calculated taking into account the losses generated by the electronic power equipment and its autonomy. The solar array sizing considers the school maximum power consumption per hour adding the necessary power to charge the batteries charged 70%. System validation for an optimal PV design on an isolated community is performed using Homer and SaberRD computational simulations tools. Results confirm that starting on dialoguing with the community optimize the design and help to create a sustainable strategy, encouraging an efficient use of equipment and energy.