Solar Resource Availability and Photovoltaic Power System Design Month in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

Many installers of Photovoltaic (PV) power system do not consider the period or month in a year that has the worst-case combination of solar resource availability and load demand to size or design PV power system, which often results in defective systems. In this study, the Design Month of Minna was determined based on solar resource availability. Campbell Scientific CR1000 software-based data logging system incorporated with ambient weather sensors and with computer interface was employed as Data Acquisition System (DAS) to measure and log weather variables; solar irradiance, relative humidity, temperature and wind speed for six years. Solar irradiance was measured by Li-200SA M200 Pyranometer sensor, temperature and relative humidity were measured with HC2S3-L Rotronic HygroClip2 Temperature and Relative Humidity sensor and wind speed was measured with 03002-L RM Young Wind Sentry Set. The logger was programmed to measure and log these ambient weather parameters at every 5 minutes intervals and daytime data from the year 2008, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 were obtained and analysed. The weather pattern, quantity available and the month with the lowest solar resource was determined by computing the hourly, daily and monthly averages of these ambient weather parameters, using Excel’s Macro Developer programme. The result shows that August is the design month in Minna. Statistical analysis was equally carried out on the solar irradiance and ambient temperature data set and a model was deduced to predict hourly averages of solar irradiance from ambient temperature in Minna and environs.