PV system integrated evaluation software

This paper presents the features of the PV system integrated evaluation software (PVI) developed by Kosuke Kurokawa Lab. team at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT). PVI was created to assist in the design of grid-connected PV system applications, and mainly consists of a basic design tool and optional tools. The basic design tool is used to determine the PV system annual output energy and system losses percentage based on a detailed parametric analysis on an hourly basis. The optional tools are used for PV applications under complex conditions, including a shading evaluation tool from fish-eye lens pictures for systems facing shading problems, array simulation tool for systems with arrays installed due to different orientations or technologies, and interface to sophisticated verification (SV) method statistical data. The last one allows the user to feedback existing systems performance and loss pattern information to new PV system design projects. Future developments involve validation of the outputs against measured values from actual worldwide systems.

Background

The populanzation of PV systems has led to the de-veloprnent of tools to estimate the output energy characteristics of new systems, and models based on parametric analysis have been widely used for this purpose. especially because of its simplicity. However, according to the complexity of PV system's characteristics, and the increasing of arrays facing shading problems and various installation modes, a detailed and integrated analysis of the design parameters involved in the analysis is neces-sary. Therefore, there is a need to develop computerized tools able to determine the potential energy output characteristics and operating performance of PV systems under such complex conditions.