Technical and Economic Modeling of the 2.5kW Grid-Tie Residential Photovoltaic System

The rising cost of the utility electricity has been on the steady rise recently thereby making electricity unaffordable for households within the low income category in the African continent. The global move from the fossil-based energy generation to the cleaner, renewable energy sources has ignited intensive research in the solar energy resources.In this paper, we discuss the computer simulation of the technical and economic model of a 2.5kW grid-tie residential photovoltaic system. The physical circuit model is built with Matlab/ Simulink software. The details of the internal electrical components that make up the solar panel and the external circuits that eventually connect it the grid are modeled here. The hourly electrical output, efficiency and the cash flow are modeled with System Advisory Model (SAM).

Keywords:

Photovoltaic, systems advisory model (SAM), levelised cost of electricity (LCOE), Maximum power point tracker (MPPT) DC-DC converters, full-wave inverter,

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