Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Energy is an intermittent energy source from Solar Radiation. It builds from sunrise with a peak at midday as shown, then reduces until nightfall. No energy at night, during clouds, or during overcast weather conditions. It can vary seasonally at higher latitudes.
Some locations like Australia, North Africa, and Southwest United States have very high amounts of Solar Radiation where Solar PV solutions are able to be scaled up significantly to GW size.
Other locations due to weather (e.g., pervasive cloudiness) or seasonal variations (e.g., high latitudes with shortened daylight seasons) may not be as suitable. Most locations are somewhere in between these extremes.
Residential and small commercial establishments have successfully used “behind the meter” Solar PV installations including roof-top panels
Industrial and extractive industry sites have used multi-hectare sized Solar PV farms located adjacent to their Facilities.
Most Solar PV solutions require Energy Storage Systems due to the intermittency of Solar Radiation and the daily variation.
Cost effective designs require careful evaluation of each potential location’s solar radiation characteristics, environmental conditions, load demand profile, and criticality of power supply (e.g., interruptible?) to correctly size the Solar PV system including panels, inverters, controllers, and Energy Storage Systems (e.g., batteries and chargers). We use global standard third party software to simulate, optimise, evaluate sensitivities, and size each Solar PV system. Sometimes a hybrid solution with other renewables combined with some backup conventional power generation may be recommended.
