Comprehensive Resource and Energy Production Assessment for Solar Farm Deployment

Assignment Brief:
You have been employed as a consultant for a solar firm. Your client requires you to (1) undertake a resource assessment of a site for PV deployment; (2) recommend an appropriate set of weather data for use in the client’s PV system modelling; (3) undertake an energy production assessment of the client’s proposed solar farm; and (4) provide a detailed report outlining the methodology, assumptions and outcomes of the solar resource and energy production assessment.

Context:
The process of being able to undertake, understand and interrogate resource and energy production assessments is a key skill for any Engineer who plans on working within the commercial or utility- scale renewable energy industry. The methodology used, assumptions made, and outcomes of resource and energy production assessments are used by various parties in research and industry, such as prospective renewable energy (RE) developers, financiers, EPC companies, owners’ engineers and regulatory bodies. These parties use resource and energy production assessments to undertake a range of activities. For example, EPC engineers can use them to bid for and negotiate contracts, whilst an owner’s engineer might use them to justify, negotiate and set guaranteed performance targets.

Learning Outcomes:
Coursework Related Outcomes:
Apply appropriate data cleaning and data visualisation techniques to manage, query, explore and communicate information from large weather and energy data sets.
Use modelling to undertake a resource assessment, predict short- and long-term renewable energy system performance, and appropriately describe the uncertainty of the prediction.
Use data analysis and modelling techniques to understand, describe, interrogate and challenge assumptions in RE modelling.

General Skills:
Handling large datasets, data exploration and data visualisation
Basic statistics and evaluating uncertainty
PV system modelling

Assignment Resources:
The Clients Proposed Solar Farm
The client has proposed the following specifications for their Solar Farm:

Table 1: Specifications of the clients’ proposed solar farm

Azimuth & Tilt Angle Horizontal single-axis tracker N-S axis 0/0
Tracker Rotation -60/+60 backtracking included
Mounting Arrangement Rows of 1 panel in portrait* orientation
Row Spacing (m) 5.0
Inverter Type SMA 4200 kW Sunny Central 4200 UP
Number of inverters 25
Total inverter power PAC (MW) 105
PV module type Canadian Solar (CSI) CS3W-450MS 1500V
PV module capacity (Wp) 450
Number of PV modules 260,400
Total rated power PDC (MWp) 117.18
Modules per string or in series 28
Strings per tracker 3
Number of trackers 3,100
* For PVsyst versions prior to version 7.0, PVsyst considers this to be landscape

Your Assignment 2 Location
For this assignment, you will be required to undertake a resource and energy production assessment for a specific location.

Your assigned location for Assignment 2 can be determined by referring to Table 2 and by following the instructions below:

Using Table 2, under the Assignment 1 header, locate the row that contains the BOM Station Name and Station ID that corresponds to the dataset you were assigned in Assignment 1.
Under the Assignment 2 header, read off the Location, Latitude and Longitude, that corresponds to the same row as the row you identified in Step 1.
This is your assigned location for Assignment 2.

Students who fail to undertake the assignment for their assigned location for Assignment 2 will receive a 30% penalty on the maximum possible grade.

Table 2: Relationship between the BoM AWS data you were assigned in Assignment 1 and your assigned location for Assignment 2.

Site Assignment 1 Assignment 2
BOM Station Name BOM Station ID Location Latitude Longitude
1 MELBOURNE AIRPORT 86282 Barkly 36.94°S 143.2°E
2 MILDURA AIRPORT 76031 Wentworth 33.82°S 141.36°E
3 WAGGA WAGGA AMO 72150 Morundah 34.94°S 146.30°E
4 COBAR MO 48027 Wilcannia 31.57 oS 143.37oE
5 ROCKHAMPTON AERO
(2020_April) 39083 Emu Park 23.26oS 150.82oE
6 GEORGETOWN AIRPORT 30124 Fossilbrook 17.86oS 144.26oE
7 ROCKHAMPTON AERO
(2019_March) 39083 Stanwell 23.56oS 150.3oE
8 LONGREACH AERO (2013_May) 36031 Jundah 25.07oS 143.17oE
9 MOUNT GAMBIER AERO 26021 Penola 37.38oS 140.84oE
10 LONGREACH AERO
(2013_June) 36031 Wills 23.04oS 140.02oE

Recommended Data Sources
For the resource and energy production assessment, you can make use of any of the following data sources or other similar resources that you manage to track down:

The Australian BOM Climate Data Online http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/
The National Map web portal (formally known as AREMI) https://www.nationalmap.gov.au/
The NASA POWER Data Access Viewer https://power.larc.nasa.gov/data-access-viewer/
Annual and monthly statistics of irradiation, air temperature and wind speed from Meteonorm and NASA SEE – Access available through PVsyst.
The World Bank Group’s Global Solar Atlas and Global Wind Atlas
http://globalsolaratlas.info/
https://globalwindatlas.info/
The International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) Global Atlas for Renewable Energy. https://irena.masdar.ac.ae/gallery/#gallery Multiple layers of data are available on this resource including:
Vaisala solar and wind maps
Meteotest Solar Map
Hint: use search for key words ‘solar’ and ‘wind’
The TMY and RMY weather files available for Australia: – Access via the U.S. DOE EnergyPlus Weather website:
https://energyplus.net/weather-region/southwest_pacific_wmo_region_5/AUS
TMY weather files for Australia from Climate.OneBuilding.Org http://climate.onebuilding.org/default.html

Assignment Tasks:
Task 1: Undertake a Resource Assessment of the Clients Specified Site
The client has asked you to undertake a detailed resource assessment for their specified location, with the aim of determining the suitability of the site for the installation of a Photovoltaic solar farm. The client has requested that the resource assessment consider the long-term characteristics and variability of the solar resource and temperature. In addition, the client requests that you undertake a rainfall soiling analysis and make a recommendation for an appropriate weather file/dataset for use in modelling their proposed solar farm.

The assessment must include:

An analysis of the long-term annual and monthly averages of Global Horizontal and Direct Normal Irradiation in units of kWh/m2.year and kWh/m2.month, and a measure of uncertainty of the estimates.
An analysis of the long-term annual and monthly averages of air temperature in units of °C, and a measure of uncertainty of the estimates.
An analysis of the interannual variability of Global Horizontal Irradiation.
The determination of the best and worst solar resource years for the specified location.
An assessment of the available hourly weather files/sources for the specified site or from nearby locations, including how well the weather files/sources reflect (a) the long-term averages for GHI, DNI and air temperature and (b) the long-term distribution of direct normal irradiation.
An assessment of the monthly soiling rate via a rainfall soiling analysis.
A recommendation for an appropriate hourly weather file/source for use in modelling the performance of the client’s proposed solar farm.

Task 2: Undertake an Energy Production Assessment of the Clients Proposed Solar Farm
The client has asked you to model their proposed solar farm in PVsyst, requesting the calculation of the P50 and P90 probability of exceedance statistics of the predicted average annual energy production over the first year of operation, over the first 10 years of operation and over the first 25 years of operation.

For this task, you will need to:

Develop a model of the client’s proposed solar farm in PVsyst.
Report the P50 and P90 probability of exceedance statistics for the predicted average annual energy production over the first 1, 10 and 25-years of operation.

Task 3: Putting it All Together
Put together a detailed report (maximum of 15 pages) in Microsoft Word outlining the methodology and outcomes of the resource (Task 1) and energy production (Task 2) assessments. The client has requested that your report include a discussion of the methodology used, the assumptions made, and the uncertainty of the assessments provided.

Your report must include:

All items listed in Task 1.
All items listed in Task 2.
A discussion of the methodologies, assumptions and uncertainty of the assessments provided.
An introduction and conclusion summarising the results or key findings/recommendations from the resource and energy production assessments.

Your final report must be written and submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) format. Microsoft Word, and other Microsoft applications, are available to all UNSW students via Microsoft Office 365. You can learn more about Microsoft Office 365 for UNSW students here.

The body of the report should have a maximum of 15 pages plus any appendices. Appendices will not be marked; hence, you, as the Engineer, need to ensure that the most important and relevant information is contained within the body of your report, and only supplementary information is provided in any appendices. If your report includes a title page, it will be excluded from the page limit.

Do not include a copy of your PVsyst report as part of your detailed report or as an appendix to your report. You will be required to upload a copy of your PVsyst report as a separate item as part of the assignment submission process in Moodle.

NB: Simply uploading a copy of the PVsyst report to Moodle will not be considered an adequate description of your PV modelling methodology. You need to outline all your assumptions and modelling methodology in the body of your report.

Task 4: Complete the Excel Answer Sheet
In order to aid the marking process, you will also need to fill out and submit a copy of the Excel Answer sheet as part of your assignment submission. The Excel Answer sheet is the Excel workbook titled ‘zID_LastName_FirstName_Answers.xlsx’ and is available to download from Moodle. Instructions on how to complete the Answer sheet are provided within the Excel workbook.

Please ensure you rename your answer sheet using the following name convention: zID_LastName_FirstName_Answers.xlsx. For example, a student named John Smith with zID z1234567, would label their file: z1234567_Smith_John_Answers.xlsx

NB: The Excel Answer sheet does not capture all the requirements of Tasks 1 and 2 outlined in this assignment brief. Hence, you are advised to read the assignment brief to ensure you include carefully all requested elements in your final report. The provided answer sheet should not be treated as a check list for the tasks required in this assessment task.

Submission
This assessment is to be done individually. Submit a copy of your final report, your Excel Answer sheet and your PVsyst report to the ‘Assignment 2 Submission’ drop box on Moodle by the date specified.

Your final report must be written and submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) format. Pdf submissions of the final report will attract a 30% penalty.

Your PVsyst report can be a pdf submission.

Work submitted late without an approved extension by the course coordinator or delegated authority is subject to a late penalty of 30 percent (30%) mark reduction on the first day and an additional 10% per day after that, consistent with other SPREE courses. The late penalty is applied per 24-hour period (including weekends and public holidays) when the assessment is overdue. There is no pro-rata of the late penalty for submissions made part way through a day.

Work submitted after the ‘deadline for absolute fail’ (see the course outline) will not be accepted and a mark of zero will be awarded for that assessment item.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
UNSW has an ongoing commitment to fostering a culture of learning informed by academic integrity. All UNSW students have a responsibility to adhere to this principle of academic integrity. Plagiarism undermines academic integrity and is not tolerated at UNSW. Plagiarism at UNSW is defined as using the words or ideas of others and passing them off as your own.

Plagiarism is a type of intellectual theft. It can take many forms, from deliberate cheating to accidentally copying from a source without acknowledgement. UNSW has produced a website with a wealth of resources to support students to understand and avoid plagiarism, visit: student.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism. The Learning Centre assists students with understanding academic integrity and how not to plagiarise. They also hold workshops and can help students one-on-one.

You are also reminded that careful time management is an important part of study and one of the identified causes of plagiarism is poor time management. Students should allow sufficient time for research, drafting and the proper referencing of sources in preparing all assessment tasks.

Repeated plagiarism (even in first year), plagiarism after first year, or serious instances, may also be investigated under the Student Misconduct Procedures. The penalties under the procedures can include a reduction in marks, failing a course or for the most serious matters (like plagiarism in an honours thesis) even suspension from the university. The Student Misconduct Procedures are available here:

www.gs.unsw.edu.au/policy/documents/studentmisconductprocedures.pdf

Marking Scheme
Marks will be assigned according to:

Accuracy – correctness of the results for the specified site and PV system design;
Completeness – inclusion of all requested metrics and elements specified in this brief;
Assumptions – the inclusion, correctness and reporting of all assumptions;
Methodology – how well the methodology, analysis and modelling are illustrated and presented to the client. For instance, can the client replicate your analysis and modelling based on the information presented in the report?;
Understanding – how well your understanding of the analysis, modelling and outcomes are demonstrated throughout the report; and
Communication – how well the report is presented, including, an assessment of grammar; relevance of the analysis and figures presented; report structure; principles of data visualisations; referencing; and the inclusion of an introduction and conclusion.