Technical and economic analysis of floating and ground mounted photovoltaic systems

Energy has been one of the driving factors and fundamental requirements of economic and social development throughout human history. With the industrial revolution, energy has been crucial in our daily lives, causing a rapid increase in energy need day by day. Governments need to meet this growing energy demand by producing energy with uninterrupted, reliable, clean and inexpensive ways. They are paying more attention to various renewable energy power plants increasingly, as well as commonly used fossil-fueled power plants. Solar energy, which is examined in this thesis, is one of the most valued and considered types of renewable energy sources, as the production costs are gradually decreasing due to the progress in technology. An energy investment is decided by considering two important criteria; strategic accuracy and commercial value. Strategically, the sustainable formation of energy policy, the enrichment of energy and the monitoring of an environmental policy are very important for the governments. At the commercial level, the investment to be made is of great commercial importance to investors. Today, it is observed that photovoltaic systems have provided these two criteria; it became the primary investment field for both the government and the private sector. Overland photovoltaic systems which are currently established and planned to be established in the near future have by far the largest capacity in all PV industry. In these systems, various simulation softwares are being used with the aim of analyzing the economic benefit before the investment decision is made. The amount of energy production for the desired period of time is calculated by entering the location (latitude-longitude), environmental conditions (such as radiation, temperature, etc.) and data of the components used in the system (PV panel, solar inverter, etc.). With the help of this simulation, rate of the investment return can also be calculated. With the increase in both strategic and commercial importance of photovoltaic systems, new PV system application areas are emerging in addition to overland PV systems. Among these areas, floating photovoltaic systems come to the forefront since they are a subsidiary of overland PV systems. The idea of floating photovoltaic systems on the water has come to mind in order to remove the relative need for land; as well as saving water to help the environment. In this regard, after the first prototypes were made, a large number of floating solar energy plants were installed, some of which were taken into operation to generate energy. Floating PV systems have the same basic energy production principle as overland photovoltaic systems. The photovoltaic panels, solar inverters and electrical equipment that is used are the same in both systems. The main difference between the two systems is the area on which they are installed. While land-based systems are assembled on the land, floating systems are installed on floating equipment on the ponds. Due to the environmental conditions in site, for floating photovoltaic systems, there is need of a special design flotation system which separates the floating PV system from the overland photovoltaic system. Installation of floating solar systems on ponds causes water saving by preventing water evaporation, in addition to energy production. Because of this outcome, floating systems are the second most commonly used type of photovoltaic system applications after overland systems. Because of the variant environmental conditions, currently there isn't a specialized version of a simulation software that is being used for floating solar systems in the world. That is the main reason why it's not as easy and accurate to analyze energy production of a floating photovoltaic system as an overland photovoltaic system. Hence, within this thesis study, various approaches are discussed. Due to the basic advantages mentioned above, in addition to traditional overland photovoltaic systems, there is a need to deeply examine the advantages of floating photovoltaic systems. In this thesis study, floating photovoltaic systems are investigated from the technical and economical point of view, in comparison with overland systems. Within the scope of these study, the energy production data of a 120 kW capacity overland photovoltaic system in Selcuklu district of Konya (a city in Central Anatolia Region) was compared with the data conducted from the simulation software that has the same power capacity and system components. In accordance with the data from this comparison, a verification coefficient was identified, which was suitable for a photovoltaic systems software in Konya region. Mut district in Icel and Selcuklu district in Konya are close in location and they have similar environmental conditions. Hence, the verification coefficient mentioned above was used to transform data collected from the photovoltaic system in Mut district, which has a 10 kW capacity, to measurement data. So, the 10 kW installed capacity simulation data which was verified and transformed into measurement data, is being compared to the data collected from a similar location and environment conditions of floating and overland photovoltaic systems (which also has 10 kW installed capacity). These results are used for the technical research of floating and overland photovoltaic systems. According to the technical research that was conducted in Mut district of Icel, it was concluded that the energy production of the floating photovoltaic system was 0.8% more than the overland photovoltaic system. Based on this data, it's concluded that the floating photovoltaic system that was used in this study and overland photovoltaic system are similar in terms of energy production. In addition to the technical research, an economical research for a 1 MW photovoltaic capacity system was also conducted for floating and overland photovoltaic systems in this thesis. In overland photovoltaic systems, land costs may vary widely depending on the location where the system is to be installed, although the cost differences due to location change are minimal. Keeping in mind that the average land expenditure for installing a photovoltaic system in Turkey is 4.3 $/m2, it is more profitable to install floating photovoltaic systems; especially if one wants to install an overland photovoltaic system in the more centralized parts in Turkey. As a result, the floating photovoltaic system costs are more convenient than overland photovoltaic systems due to the increased land costs in central locations. In consideration of the economic research, the economic aspect was compared between two photovoltaic systems that have the same 1 MW capacity; one floating and the other overland, which were installed in Buyukcekmece district in Istanbul. In this research, it was concluded that the cost for a floating photovoltaic system was 13.7% more than the overland photovoltaic system, for the same location. Furthermore, the investment return was one year longer for the floating photovoltaic system. Even though, there are many studies that compare the technical and economic aspects of floating and overland photovoltaic systems, there is limited information on quantitative comparison between these two systems. In addition to the studies carried out in the thesis, it is aimed to provide efficient and environmentally friendly use of energy which is the most important resource on the world. Energy-related research is also associated with water and land needs, which is also very important in terms of the limited resources we have in the world.