Lessons Learned from Design of Photovoltaic solar parks: An Approach on Technical Characteristics

Abstract

Design of photovoltaic solar farms presents a technical uncertainty in the search for an optimal solution (profitability/cost) to implement in a given project. The benefits in the selection of a system of centralized or distributed investors vary according to the technological disposition of each country. Additionally, recent technological developments may present incompatibility with traditional technologies, that is, the choice of an inverter technology would require the use of the full range of products of a certain company. Therefore, selecting characteristics for the design (technology in centralized or distributed inverters, capacity of each 330 Wp or 390 Wp solar panel) must consider an integral solution that includes, among others, the impacts: technical (reliability, electrical losses, regulation , voltage level, etc); economic (equipment prices, levelized costs - LCOE, energy purchase contracts, maintenance); logistics (import times, transport of equipment, telecommunications and electrical infrastructure need, equipment import price, price of selected technologies); regulatory (technical requirements of each country). This paper presents the lessons learned during the design of a 20 MW Solar Park located in Panama.