Tag: Solar
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Calculating the Solar Irradiance
As I delved deeper into solar pv design, I felt the need to understand and reproduce how the solar pv power output given on websites such as the Global Solar Atlas and the NREL NSRDB is calculated. Solar pv panels converts solar irradiance to power. Thus the first step is to understand solar irradiance. Solar…
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Designing a fit for purpose PV + BESS system
Discussing various residential and commercial PV + BESS systems, I observed a common gap in understanding among users, and even designers of these systems. This gap pertains to the basics of PV energy production, the importance of defining a load profile, and the design process of a PV system tailored to meet this profile within…
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Simulating a Solar Power Plant
I’ve been designing and simulating power plants with spreadsheets. I found spreadsheets to be quite effective for steady-state or average performance modeling, but I struggle when it comes to modelling rapid, real-time variations, such as the sudden drop in solar irradiance due to cloud cover and changing the configuration of the power plant takes some…
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Half a Billion $$ for 25MW on H2
Picture this: After discussing couple of options on energy solutions, a potential customer excitedly showed me slides of a concept to turn wastewater into a power source, complete with hydrogen production and fuel cells churning out electricity for their industrial operation at a competitive cost of electricity. He was convinced, or someone convinced him, that…