Techno-economic sizing analysis of solar PV system for Domestic Refrigerators

The energy demand of the growing population is huge. To meet this surging demand the solar energy is the best option to build up the bridge between demand and supply gap. Hydro and thermal energy sources as the traditional way to generate the electricity is not sufficient to meet the demand. Hence, the non-renewable sector has a great potential in providing the energy needs with solar energy playing the major role. The study reveals that the sun emits 3.86 x 10(26)W of energy with most of the energy dissipated into the space and only 1.74 x 10(17)W strikes the earth. In the present work, a solar photo voltaic system is developed for the use in domestic refrigerators. The power needed for the domestic refrigerator has been estimated as 356 Wh/day. For the specific power requirement, the size of the panel required is found to be 1.3 modules of 100W. The inverter, which is needed to convert the DC to AC used in the experimental setup is about 463.32 W. Further, the battery capacity, according to the specific requirement is 58.23 A-h. Solar PV system the Solar Charging controller is the important component operates at 12 A with 12V. The SPVP can generate 47085 kWh/year, while a degradation factor of 0.05% has been taken into account which in turn affects the power produced by 41760.67 kWh/day in 25 years. Considering the discount and inflation factor LCOE has been found to be 0.0870 in 25 years, which is justified. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.