Question

A grid-connected residential PV system is placed on the roof of a 2000 square foot suburban house. The PV array with an area equal to 50 square meters (about 500 square feet) covers half of the south-facing part of the roof. The power rating of this PV system is 5.0 kW, meaning that it will produce 5.0 kW under peak sunlight conditions. The installed cost of this system is $50,000.

The PV system is operating in a location where the annual average daily incident solar energy (the insolation) incident on the array equals 5.0 kWh/m2/day. Calculate the average amount of solar energy incident on the PV array each day.

Answer 1

Answer:To calculate the average amount of solar energy incident on the PV array each day, we need to use the following formula:

Average daily solar energy incident on the PV array = insolation x PV array area

Here, the insolation is given as 5.0 kWh/m2/day, and the PV array covers an area of 50 square meters. Therefore, we can plug in these values into the formula as follows:

Average daily solar energy incident on the PV array = 5.0 kWh/m2/day x 50 m2

= 250 kWh/day

So the average amount of solar energy incident on the PV array each day is 250 kWh. This means that on an average day with peak sunlight conditions, the PV system will produce 5.0 kW of power for 50 hours, for a total of 250 kWh.

Step-by-step explanation: