Techno-economic analysis of floating PV solar power plants using active cooling technique : A case study for Taiwan

Sammanfattning: The development of large scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant is of great interest, especially in regions with favourable weather climate conditions such as Taiwan. However, designing large scale systems brings several challenges, including land availability as well as dealing with high temperature impact on PV modules. Combining floating PV plant (FPV) and active cooling system is a promising collaboration, using water availability on site to cool down the PV panels on a regular basis. FPV plant can be installed on unused water bodies to save land for other activities. Spraying water on the PV modules can help increase daily production and reduce system losses. The utilization management of such cooling system needs to be planned and optimized, according to local meteorological conditions. Therefore, this thesis study aims to investigate the impacts of implementing an active water cooling system on the FPV plant techno-economic performance. The objective is to design different cooling utilization strategies and analyse the behaviour of the FPV plant, evaluating whether or not the combined FPV and cooling system is technically efficient and economically viable. In this thesis work, a techno-economic analysis is performed based on FPV plant and water cooling models, given specific weather climate and economic conditions at the chosen location. The developed models are implemented with MATLAB and simulations are carried out on real data collected from a planned FPV plant at Sugu site in Taiwan. Performance indicators are then calculated and compared for different cooling strategies. For the given technical and economic assumptions, introducing PV panels cooling at an optimal maximum irradiation value shows a net yearly generation gain of 6.6% in comparison the FPV alone. This configuration increases capital costs but provides a 9.1% reduction in the solar plant payback, while slightly reducing the cost of electricity.