Potential electricity savings analysis from implementing building integrated photovoltaics at an industrial plant / Jonathan Teo Kok Chiang

Jonathan Teo , Kok Chiang (2021) Potential electricity savings analysis from implementing building integrated photovoltaics at an industrial plant / Jonathan Teo Kok Chiang. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Malaysia is striving towards meeting its climate goals as part of the Paris Agreement, of which Malaysia is one of the signatories. Two of our current main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Malaysia is the energy industries and manufacturing industries. To develop more energy diversity in our country, solar photovoltaic technology will be key to further reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, given its suitability for our climate and the advancements in the technology that has lowered its cost and increased its electricity generation capacity. Therefore, this study was done to spur the adoption of BIPV technology in the industrial sector by showcasing the electricity savings potential at industrial sites by using an existing site to simulate the estimated savings from implementing a BIPV system. This study utilised a method for estimating the BIPV system by considering the current available Solar PV technologies that can be implemented, and considering the physical, geographic, technical and economic potential for a selected site. This study used a widely used simulation software PVSyst to input the localised meteorological data and utilising its wide database of PV modules. The chosen site has an effective roof area of 7,000m2 was selected for the study and PV modules were selected based on their availability in the Malaysian market. The electricity tariff used was based on the local electric utilities provider’s classification for medium voltage industries. System losses were also considered in the simulation model to provide better relations to real world conditions. By applying the proposed methods, a total of six models were developed, with each utilising different PV technologies to generate the technical and economic potential, which led to an analysis on the electricity savings for each type of proposed system. Overall, the estimated annual electrical savings was from a range of 1,503MWh/year to 1,801MWh/year, with an LCOE range of between 0.182 MYR/kWh to 0.351 MYR/kWh. The thin film cellsimulation model was also found to have the best payback period among all generated models. While this study has shown that, different types of technology will provide varying results in terms of potential electric savings for a company, further studies can be conducted to expand the technical and economic aspect to provide more accurate simulations in future reports, with focus provided on any potential funding aids e.g. private or government and more research on degradation over time of PV modules.

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