Exploring an optimal selection method of photovoltaic systems for university campuses

The ever-increasing environmental problems associated with the burning of fossil fuels for electrical power generation, together with their availability at acceptable costs difficulties, have led to more and more search for non-polluting, renewable primary sources of such energy, where solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass, ocean energies and others have been considered and studied as alternative sources. The electrical power needs at university campuses and educational institutions have been increasing by the increasing number of such institutions and their need for electrical power. The nature of their electrical loads consisting mainly of space and water heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, and some other small facilities loads, is almost the same with its heaviest during the day hours and lowest at night, following the site activities. Among the various renewable energy sources, photo-voltaic direct solar radiation conversion to electrical energy has proved to be the most viable in various situations. The PV systems have been developed through the last years, increasing their efficiencies and lowering their costs, hence increasing their feasibility. Several campuses worldwide have introduced these technologies to generate all or at least part of their electrical energy loads, in what is known as sustainable energy supply, zero energy application, or green buildings. Some university competitions adopted this issue as one of these competition items. Among the different types, varieties, and manufacturers of PV systems, one may choose what fits his needs. The selection process needs to be considered carefully towards an optimum selection. In this work, the application of PV systems for university campuses is reviewed and has been found to indicate that building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is an adequate technology for building's electrical power supply, as more and more buildings are being designed and built, particularly in urban areas, realizing several advantages over buildings supplied through conventional grids. With the technical, economic, architectural, and environmental. social and legal aspects considered; a method is developed to select the optimum PV system for university campus buildings, that gives the maximum energy yield at the lowest cost among the available systems. The method is then demonstrated in a case study, at a typical university campus in Ankara, Turkey, giving reasonable results encouraging further the use of PV systems in such applications with considerable economic saving, particularly when energy conservation ways and means are applied. For the case study considered here, the annual energy yield was 22,059 MWH, of which 17,905 MWH was from the façade installed PV system, while 4,154 MWH was from on roof positioning system. The unit energy cost was 8.47 Euros per Kwh.