Performance Analysis of a Photovoltaic System installed in the Northeast of Brazil

Abstract

This article shows the study about the photovoltaic solar power plant installed in Messejana, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil (latitude 3° 49’57”,7” S and longitude 38°29’58”,3’’ W) with an installed capacity of 19.2 kWp. It aims to punctuate the good practices for correct sizing of a grid connected photovoltaic power system, in microgeneration, and evaluate the system performance. The monitoring of the system was between March and September 2021. During this measuring period, the energy delivered to the power grid was 18197.15 kWh. the average reference, array, and final yields were 5.45 kWh/kWp, 4.33 kWh/kW, and 4.26 kWh/kW, respectively. The annual loss of the array and the system were 0.81 kWh/kW and 0.07 kWh/kWp, respectively, and the annual average of array and system efficiencies were 15.13% and 14.88%, respectively. The performance rate and capacity factor were 81.85% and 18.05%, respectively. Those numbers highlight the relatively good performance of photovoltaic systems installed in the Northeast region of Brazil.