A study of photovoltaics and of combining solar power with an existing wind power plant

Sammanfattning: In this paper, the viability of integrating solar power with an already running wind power plant is examined. The study, conducted in cooperation with Eolus, takes place in Anneberg, Sweden, home to three wind turbines with a combined capacity of 10.8 MW. This study examines whether or not it would be profitable to integrate an additional intermittent power source to the wind power plant’s existing grid connection point. Utilizing an existing grid infrastructure could lower the expenses for a new solar development considering that connecting power plants to the grid though new infrastructure can be fairly expensive. Six different PV cases were studied and evaluated based on their profitability. These cases consisted of solar panel systems facing south, east/west, vertical south, vertical bifacial north/south, vertical bifacial east/west and using a single axis tracking system set on a horizontal axis. The performance and profitability for the different solar cases were evaluated using simulations results based on the site’s historic weather data. Thereafter, it was determined that south facing stationary mounted panels were the most profitable; as a result, this method was used when modelling a hybrid setup. Various different ratios of solar power when integrated to the wind power plant were simulated in an attempt to find an ideal ratio. In the simulations, the wind power took precedence, meaning that all the curtailed solar power was considered as losses. The results concluded that the smaller solar ratios were more desirable considering that less electricity was lost from overproduction due to the limited capacity of the grid connection point. These results were compared to the profitability of the PV systems should they instead act as a stand alone, grid connected system with the same power capacity. This allowed us to conclude that it could be financially viable to add photovoltaics to an existing wind power plant, based on the economic assumptions made in this study.