Techno-Economic Analysis of Fixed, Single and Dual-Axis Tracking Solar PV System

The continuously increasing world electricity demand and environmental degradation due to fossil fuel sources are one the foremost problem to all the countries. Solar PV (photovoltaic) technology is emerging as a solution to mitigate the energy demand, energy availability and environmental degradation problems. It directly converts solar energy into electrical energy without any environmental concern. The output power capacity of the PV system largely depends upon solar radiation intensity. The diurnal and seasonal changing position of the sun concerning PV system location leads to variable solar radiation intensity at different times of the year. This problem can compensate using suntracking, which rotates the PV system such that maximum solar radiation received by the system irrespective of sun position. In this paper techno-economic analysis of fixed, single-axis (1-axis) tracking and dual-axis (2-axis) tracking solar PV system is presented. The comparative study is performed for the above-mentioned PV orientation techniques by considering 1
^st
and 2
^nd
generation PV modules. The 76.8 kW grid-connected solar PV system is simulated by considering Mumbai’s meteorological conditions and real-time economic data.