Electric Power Generation: Conventional & Renewable

Case study for LED beacon lighting in El Paso, Texas, USA

Narwal Ajit S., Graduate Student, NC State University

Abstract: The evolution of photovoltaics has brought avenues and opportunities for DIY projects which are both exciting, economically viable and make perfect sense in the days when reducing ones carbon-footprint and going green is the norm of the day. The case under consideration is that of illuminating a shop billboard using stand-alone PV systems. The study initiates from load analysis and culminates into doing an economic analysis augmented with the circuit simulations. The location for PV system installation is chosen in El Paso, Texas (latitude=31.80o N) whose solar irradiation data [1] is shown in the figure a).

angle for the case under consideration is fixed at +15o for extracting maximum energy during winter months.

Fig b). The variation of irradiation averaged over a period of three decades in El Paso, TX.

Fig a) Solar radiation for flat-plate collectors facing south at a

fixed-tilt (kWh/m2-day), uncertainty +-9%. Fig c). Average climatic conditions at the site.

Even though for most uniform power distribution through the year the tilt angle should be chosen as equal to the latitude of the location [2] but the tilt

The primary purpose for the PV system installation is to provide reliable and cheap, though the latter in longer period, and environment friendly power for

lighting a commercial establishment billboard using LED (Light emitting diode) beacon/flood lights.

An approximate 3200 lux shall serve the purpose for the application. The LED lights chosen [3] for the project are shown in Fig f) and Fig g)

Fig d). Prototype application of LED beacon lights.

Component Selection The lights would operate during the evening and night time till the establishment is operational which amounts to an average of 5 hours staring from 1800 hrs daily. The billboard dimensions are taken to be 2meters3 meters. The lights are to be installed at a distance of 1 meter from the board. The lumens for the applications are derived using specifications from a commercially available LED beacon lights.

Fig f). Selected LED lights specifications; and below Fig. g) shows the LED light fixture.

Fig g).

Fig e). Variation of luminous intensity with distance from the light source.

The lumens provided by one of the above beacons is close to 1000 at a distance of 1 meter in a square shaped light beam. That makes it approximately three beacons to light the area. The power consumed by each is 24 W at a voltage of 24 V each. The number of hours of operation being 5 makes it a total of 2435=360Wh/day coupled with a demand of 243=72 W. Since the wattage requirement is less than 1200 W hence the system voltage is chosen [4] to be 12 V.

=> Number of parallel strings=(30Ah/day)/(11.43 Ah/day-string)=2.6~3.0 Number of modules in series =1 For B: Ah/day-string = 8.028
Fig h). Guideline for choosing system voltage.[4]

Total load, which is only DC, comes out to be (360Wh/day)/(12V)=30Ah/day Eq. 1 Quite obviously for an application like this one would not install a generator for any augmentation which leads to a solar fraction of one year long. The worst month from a view-point of PV installation is December (Fig a)) with an irradiation of 5.6 kWh/m2-day. For a comparative analysis two solar panels are chosen, segregated on the basis of their wattage. A- Solartech SPM045P 45 Watt multicrystalline solar module and B- Solartech SPM045P 45 Watt multicrystalline solar module. The specifications for A:

=> Number of parallel strings=(30Ah/day)/( 8.028 Ah/day-string)=3.7~4.0 Eq. 2 Number of modules in series =1 Battery sizing depends on the number of days of usable storage required, which in turn depends on the availability that one seeks from the installed system which is chosen to be 99% here.

Fig i). Days of battery storage needed for a stand-alone system considering availabilities of 95% and 99%. Peak sun-hours are for the worst month of year and availability is on an annual basis. [5]

Specifications for B:

The month of December receives a lowest average of irradiance, 5.6 kWh/m2-day, which indicates a storage requirement of 6.92 days! Battery storage required= ((30 Ah/day)(6.92 days))/(0.63)**=3329.5 Ah Eq. 3 The battery is chosen with characteristics such that it has the maximum cycle life, which naturally points to deep-cycle lead acid batteries which are especially designed for renewable energy applications.

For A: Ah/day-string= 5.62.52(0.90.9)*=11.43 *Assuming 90% Coulomb efficiency and 10% de-rating
factor.

The selected battery is Trojan L-16 RE-B.

**The factor of 0.63 is arrived at from Fig j)

Battery specifications:

leads to a capacity of 47.6 Ah, which is lower than the calculated value proving our assumption correct. Number of batteries in series voltage/Battery nominal voltage =12/6=2 The number of strings in parallel=332.85/370~1 Hence it can be concluded that the actual battery storage available is 370 Ah (based on the by-default 20 hour discharge rate) System Costs The costs include that of PV, batteries, charge controller, installation. Prices: Item PV panel Cost ($) 3149.5=448.5 4117=468 379 90 0.2(Above costs)=183.5 1190.0 =System

The important characteristics of the battery are shown below.

A B

Batteries Charge controller Installation+BOS Total

Fig j). Battery capacity versus temperature.

The running and recurring costs are nil! Incentives given by the government for PV module installation [5] a) A rebate establishments. of $2.25/W for commercial

Since temperature in El Paso can go up to a minimum of -22o C, we can assume the batteries to suffer a minimum temperature of -5 o C in an enclosed shed. This leads to a conclusion that the maximum the battery can be allowed to discharge is 63% or else the battery shall freeze. This factor of 63% leads us to decide the actual battery storage that is needed which has been calculated in Eq. 3. Rate of discharge during the lean period of 6.92 days comes out to be C/166, with C depicting the capacity of the battery. This is a very slow discharge process and it is a not a generous assumption for the maximum depth of discharge (MDOD) to be close to 99%! This gives a battery storage of 332.85 Ah. A quick check for the minimum storage capacity if the batteries are discharged the quickest, in 5 hours,

b) Loan at a marginal interest rate of 4.0 %. Let us assume that the company comes under a tax slab (marginal tax bracket or MTB) of 20.5%. The savings come to be 131 kWh/year upon installation of the aforesaid system. Considering a loan for the above system for $1190-$(2.2572)= $1028 for a period of 10 years along with factors such as a personal discount factor of 0.1, price escalation at 5% a CRF (Capital recovery factor) of 0.123 is obtained. A cash-flow analysis was done considering the above mentioned factors which concluded that the system is indeed a viable option

though the occupier will have to be patient for the system to pay-off for itself.

battery bank reduces below 90% of its nominal value. The overall system is implemented in SIMULINK environment with the schematics given in Fig. m).

Fig k). Cash flow analysis for the PV system.

It can be seen that during the term that the loan is paid off the savings arent healthy, in fact there are no saving at all, this is because the system is of a relatively lesser magnitude which results in savings which are not big numbers, however, when the system is paid off the savings become to accumulate and soon take over the losses suffered during the pay-off period. Circuit modeling and simulation The PV system application in this case works this way: the panel charges the batteries during the day and the batteries power the LED beacons during the night hours of operation. The circuit for the system is given in Fig l)

Fig m). Circuit schematics. The switching block is explored in the next figure.

Fig l). PV system schematics.

The system is implemented with a charge controller between the source and the battery bank to avoid excessive charging (set at 99% of the nominal stateof-charge in this experiment) of the bank during peak sun-hours and to swoop-in if the charge on the

Fig n). Switching block.

The logic behind the switching implementation is straight forward. Switch S_one controls the input of the battery banks from the PV panel and switch S_two is installed between battery bank and load. S_one charges the battery bank whenever the insolation is greater than 500 W/m2 AND if the charge on the batteries goes below 90% of the nominal value. S_two supplies power to the load whenever it becomes dark outside (taken as insolation<500 W/m2) with charge on the batteries being between 90% and 99% of the nominal value. An additional control is provided for the user if they wish to switch ON or OFF the lights whenever they want (cases such as when during the night the user wishes to close). Simulation results:

References:
[1] Solar Radiation Data Manual for Flat-Plate and Concentrating Collectors, NREL, RReDC*. [2] Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems, Masters, Gilbert M., Aug. 2004, chapter 7 (the solar resource) page 393. [4] Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems, Masters, Gilbert M., Aug. 2004, chapter 9 (photovoltaic systems) page 556. [5] Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems, Masters, Gilbert M., Aug. 2004, chapter 9 (photovoltaic systems) page 570.

Fig o). Charging characteristics: State of charge of battery bank (%) versus time (seconds) with 50% as the initial charge state.

Fig p). Discharging characteristics: State of charge of battery bank (%) versus time (seconds) with 95% as the initial charge state.