Feasibility study of solar PV installation in UITM Sarawak/Nur Farahiah Ibrahim … [et al.]

Malaysia is gearing towards renewable energy source and is blessed with an excellent geographical location, providing abundant solar energy. Improvement in solar panel efficiency and reduction in panel cost has made solar energy a very viable option for RE and is being adopted in utility-scale installation around the world with one of the lowest levelized cost of electricity index. Malaysian government is committed in the development of renewable energy especially on solar, photovoltaic (PV) and has encouraged the installation of solar PY system by introducing the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) in 2011. Energy generated in PV system depends mainly on solar energy available at selected site. Geographical location, ambient temperature, clearness index, tilt angle and orientation of PV panel are the main factors that affect PV generation. Among other alternatives energy available, PV system is the most promising renewable energy in Malaysia, since the system is clean, environment friendly, and this country is blessed with high intensity solar energy. However, solar is grossly underutilized, despite Malaysia is endowed with solar energy. There are several states in Malaysia which is still not fully electrified, especially in rural states of Sarawak and Sabah (66.91% and 67.05%). However, solar energy is unpredictable, as solar radiation is varies and frequently changes, depend on weather and climate changes. Due to that, energy generated usually does not match with load demand. Hence, battery is needed as backup power supply. Before installation, it is important to ensure that the system will not be oversized or undersized; hence designers have to make some pre-feasibility study on the system. In order to efficiently and economically utilize the solar energy, system sizing and economic analysis is necessary. Electricity consumption is very important in system sizing, as well as economic analysis, since overproduction can worsen economical results. Large self-consumption is desirable, to obtain lowest investment with full use of PV array and/or battery bank.