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DEMONSTRATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND DEMAND-SIDE MANAGEMENT BENEFITS OF GRID-CONNECTED PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SYSTEMS
Citation:
Spiegel*, R., E. Kern Jr., AND D. Greenberg. DEMONSTRATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND DEMAND-SIDE MANAGEMENT BENEFITS OF GRID-CONNECTED PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SYSTEMS. SOLAR ENERGY. Pergamon Press Ltd., New York, NY, 62(5):345-58, (1998).
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Description:
This study investigated the pollutant emission reduction and demand-side management potential of 16 photovoltaic (PV) systems installed across the U.S. in 1993 and 1994. The project was sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 11 electric utilities. This article presents results of analyses of each system's ability to offset emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, and particulates, and to provide power during peak load hours for the individual host building and the utility. To assess the value of storage in grid-tied PV systems, results of simulations of battery storage systems powered by each PV system are also presented. The analyses indicate a very broad range in the systems' abilities to offset pollutant emissions, due to variation in the solar resource available and the emission rates of the participating utilities' load following generation systems. Use of dispatchable storage would reduce emission offsets due to energy losses in charging and discharging the batteries. Each system's ability to reduce building peak loads was dependent on the correlation of that load to the available solar resource. Most systems operated in excess of 50% of their capacity during building peak load hours in the summer months, but well below that level during winter peak hours. Similarly, many systems operated above 50% of their capacity during utility peak load hours in the summer months, but at a very low level during winter peak hours. The addition of dispatchable energy storage significantly increases each system's peak load matching ability, raising capacity factors to 100% for most systems during the utility's highest load hours.
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DEMONSTRATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND DEMAND-SIDE MANAGEMENT BENEFITS OF GRID-CONNECTED PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SYSTEMS (PDF, NA pp, 515 KB, about PDF)