Offsetting Commercial Structure Electric Cooling Loads – Technical Analysis Using Grid Connected PV

This paper presents a prospective analysis for modeling grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to counterpoise the electrical load requirements of space cooling within the majority of commercial buildings found in the United States. The proposed method applies survey data sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) along with solar irradiance levels to tailor PV arrays capable of supporting the electrical load requirements caused by space cooling elements in small commercial buildings across all major U.S. climate regions. Performing this analysis applies average annual load data provided by the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) for commercial buildings between 1,000 and 10,000 square feet in size. This is evaluated against the range of average solar irradiance data historically associated with each of the studied climate regions to determine accurate PV array sizing. The systems are then tested by simulating their annual production capabilities and developing a profile comparable to the total average annual cooling load in order to determine an overall potential load reduction.