DEVELOPMENT OF SOFTWARE FOR SIZING AN STAND-ALONE PHOTOVOLTAIC/BATTERY SYSTEM BASED ON MATHEMATICAL MODELS

Photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most reliable and ecological sources of electricity generation. Photovoltaic systems are currently being used to supply electricity to isolated areas, away from the principal grids, and can be cost-effective and ensure energy security. Optimal sizing of PV systems in remote locations is a crucial challenge. It must take into account the irradiation of the study area, the tilt angle of the modules, the energy demand and the characteristics of the system components. This work develops software for sizing isolated solar PV power generation systems with battery energy storage. This software is a free offline desktop application that is developed based on empirical equations for sizing the components of a PV system. The languages java (Netbeans) and SQL (SQLite) are used to design the graphical interface and the database respectively. The jasper report plugin was integrated into Netbeans to design the report. The 3040kWh/day load profile of the Kankan Coura health centre, Kankan, Guinea was used to validate the software. Based on this data, the simulation results showed a south-facing tilt angle of 11, a peak power of 790Wp, a 160Ah battery bank, a 60A charge controller, a 0.5kVA inverter and a cable with a cross-section of 25mm. The results also specified a configuration of 3 series of 2 modules for the PV array and a row of 2 batteries for the battery bank.