Evaluation and Analysis of the Photovoltaic Potential for Odisha

Abstract

Solar energy is a potential resource for the various renewable energy options which is clean, inexhaustible and eco-friendly. The development of usage and installation of PV system needs a relevant solar policy making plan through proper assessment of solar PV Energy potential. The study uses the estimate of the PV potential of an area under consideration using the PVGIS online software. The study divides the total geographic area of into a grid of „mxn‟. The PVGIS evaluated the value of incident solar radiation and generated PV energy at central coordinate of each grid. The evaluation of energy potential for four cases (based on mounting and tracking) uses two critical parameters: annual incident Global radiation and annual PV Energy production. A methodology is presented to plot the rasterized maps of the solar energy potential. The study further discusses a case study of Odisha to show the usefulness of the proposed methodology to develop a district wise strategy for promoting the installation of grid-connected PV system. The decision to install a PV plant depends on three major factors: the climatic and environment conditions of the location, the viability of commercial operations, and the government policies. Considering uncertain nature of geographical parameters development of a reliable model to predict the energy output of a plant-to-be installed becomes essential. The study proposes models that consider only two meteorological variables collected from 1195 locations of Odisha: total annual incident global radiation on the PV module and annual average air temperature. The thesis focuses on simplification at every stage of the development while validating the preciseness of the model. A case study of NIT Rourkela is considered to apply a various methods for the evaluation of PV potential. Again the current solar policy framework of India is reviewed along with the challenges the nation has to face for achieving the targets.