Income maximisation in a household PV system by means of output and consumption simulations

Abstract

The installation of photovoltaic (PV) systems in the Maltese Islands plays an important role in allowing Malta to increase its share in renewable energy to meet its European targets. In the residential sector, PV systems are generally installed on flat rooftops of households with an orientation as close to south-facing and an inclination angle as close to 30° as possible. The scope of this study was to identify the most favourable installation configurations of these PV systems by comparing the output of electricity generation with the electricity consumption patterns of different household types. The research was carried out by simulating the monthly electricity generation of a 3 kWp PV system for a year, as well as the hourly electricity generation for a day in each season of the year using the PVsyst software package. A total of 21 configurations were studied by altering the orientation and inclination angles used to install the PV system. This study confirmed that a south-facing PV system inclined at 30° generates the most electricity in a year. However, when compared with electricity consumption patterns of low-, medium-, and high-consumption households, it is shown that a southfacing PV system inclined at 40° provides a better income for residents. Also, the results show that installing a southeast-facing PV system may help Malta improve its electricity generation from renewable sources of energy during times of high electricity demand, which will help reduce the load being placed on the Power Station. From the results, it is recommended that future schemes promote the generation of electricity from PV panels during times of high demand to incentivise residents to install PV panels using the most favourable configurations for Malta.