PV plants for research purposes in Antofagasta

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Soiling

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Process by which dust deposits on a surface during exposure to the environment

1. Due to gravity: sedimentation of the

particles on the surface.

2. Adhesion due to: humidity, Van der Waals

force and/or electrostatic.

3. Cementation with salt and other

substances.

4. Others: e. g. bird dropping

Chemical composition and particle size

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PV plants at the coast of the Atacama desert: c-Si/a-Si tandem thin films, mc-Si and mono-Si

PV plants at coastal zone of Atacama Desert [ ] [ ]

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22

==

m

kWm

kWhY

kWpkWhYGH

PEPR

r

f

STC

POA

STC

DC

Yr: Avg n of STC peak sun hours defining solar resource for PV plant

Yf: n of hours that the PV array would need to operate at its rated power to provide the measured (DC) energy

HPOA: 2600 kWh/m2*year Yf,mono-Si: 1760 kWh/kWp*year Yf,a-Si/c-Si: 1690 kWh/kWp*yearYf,mc-Si: 1590 kWh/kWp*year

PRslopemono-Si: -1.7, -3.7, -1.8 %/monthPRslopea-Si/c-Si: -4.2, -4.4, -3.7 %/monthPRslopemc-Si: -1.8, -3.8, -3.1 %/month

Daily performance ratio and temperature

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Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE)LCoE represents the generated electricity cost including the initial capital, the return of investment and variable cost

ATC is the annualized total costs and TEP is the total energy produced.The ATC depends on total investment and variable costs () and annualized factor (:

f=

Where r is the discount rate and n is the lifetime of the plant in years.

1612/Full Load Hours

Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE)

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LCoE Thin film mono-Si mc-Si

Clean (cEURO/kWh) 14.49 13.37 15.65

Dirty (cEURO/kWh) 15.56 14.33 16.71

Thin film mono-Si mc-Si

Item Value Quantity Total Value Quantity Total Value Quantity Total

Modules 132.8 24 3187.2 231.5 18 4167 240 14 3360

Inverters 1000 1 1000 900 1 900 900 1 900

Dataloggers 329 0,5 164.5 329 0,5 164.5 329 1 329

Sensors 223 1 223 223 1 223 346 1 346

Structure 320 10 3200 320 6 1920 320 8 2560

O&M 1O&M 2

48.15

48.15

3

12

48.11

192.46

48.15

48.15

3

12

48.11

192.46

48.15

48.15

3

12

48.11

192.46

Others 209.18 1 209.18 209.18 1 209.18 209.18 1 209.18

Total 1

Total 2

8031.99

8176.34

7631.79

7776.14

7752.29

7896.64

PV plants at industrial environment in Atacama

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GHI: 2540 60 kWh/m2*year

GTI: 2850 10 kWh/m2*year

GTI: 2640 10 kWh/m2*year

TGI: 3500 20 kWh/m2*year

GHI: Global Horizontal Irradiation

GTI: Global Tilted Irradiation

TGI: 1-axis Sun-Tracking Global Irradiation

Yf,CdTe: 1590 80 kWh/kWp*year

Yf,mc-Si: 1790 50 kWh/kWp*year

Yf,mc-Si-track :2320 60 kWh/kWp*year

PRslope,CdTe: -4.3 0.2 %/month

PRslope,mc-Si: -4.0 0.2 %/month

PRslope,mc-Si-track : -4.4 0.4 %/month

LCoE of the PV plants at industrial environment

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Data Value Unity CdTe (fixed), 5,6 kW mc-Si (fixed), 5,2 kW mc-Si (tracking), 5,2 kW

Module cost 0,78 US$/W $ 4.368,00 $ 4.056,00 $ 4.056,00

Inverter cost 0,194 US$/W $ 1.086,40 $ 1.008,80 $ 1.008,80

Balance of system, equipment 1,43 US$/W $ 8.008,00 $ 7.436,00 $ 7.436,00

Installation labor 0,62 US$/W $ 3.472,00 $ 3.224,00 $ 3.224,00

Installer margin and overhead 1,42 US$/W $ 7.952,00 $ 7.384,00 $ 7.384,00

Permitting, environmental studies 0,08 US$/W $ 448,00 $ 416,00 $ 416,00

Grid interconnection 0,3 US$/W $ 1.680,00 $ 1.560,00 $ 1.560,00

O&M 1 (clean) 40 US$/kW-year $ 224,00 $ 208,00 $ 208,00

TOTAL (US$) $ 27.238,40 $ 25.292,80 $ 25.292,80

O&M 2 (dirty) 40 US$/kW-year $ 0,00 $ 0,00 $ 0,00

TOTAL (US$) $ 27.014,40 $ 25.084,80 $ 25.084,80

Clean (c/kWh) $ 21,86 $ 18,92 $ 14,67

Dirty (c/kWh) $ 28,49 $ 23,79 $ 18,36

Clean (cUSD/kWh) $ 23,78 $ 20,58 $ 15,95

Dirty (cUSD/kWh) $ 30,98 $ 25,87 $ 19,97

Ongoing and future investigations

EVA: ethylene vinyl acetate

POE: polyolefin elastomer

Main content of the samples

][mA/cm )()()( 202

1

dTISRqJ =

Compound Composition

Alpha quarz SiO2

Albite NaAlSi3O8

Halite NaCl

Hematite Fe2O3

Calcite CaCO3

Conclusions

17/

High solar radiation levels, moderate temperatures and clear sky in northern Chile

Different environmental conditions and energy needs in Chile

Behavior of PV technologies not well known in Chile

Soiling and interaction of materials with the environment

Determination of LCoE for PV plants considering actual performance, and prediction for new PV projects

Possibility to test PV devices in Atacama (performance and material degradation, electricity costs)

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