EVALUATION AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF 2MW SOLAR PV FARM IN MELAKA

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) plants in the world are presently
subjected to the growing importance driven by the
search for alternative resources of traditional fossil fuel.
The development of photovoltaic energy in the last
decade has brought to light the prediction of PV module
performance under real outdoor operating condition.
This paper presents a case study of installing 2MW
solar power plant in Melaka. The case study discusses
the key factors that could influence the power
generation output of a solar plant, namely the
environmental factors and the system factors. The
environmental factors comprise of the effect from sun
irradiance and temperature, whereas the system factors
comprise of the effects of inverter and transformer
efficiency, cable losses, dirt impact, mismatch and
shading effect and degradation. The effects of the
environmental factors on solar power plant were studied
based on the historical meteorological data retrieved
from the commercially available database, Meteonorm.
In addition, economic viability was also analysed based
on the system performance analysis. The key findings of
the study suggest that despite the reduced power
generation output caused by the environmental and
system factors, it is still economically feasible to invest
into the development of 2MW solar farm in Melaka
under the current Feed-in Tariff scheme.