Geographic smoothing of solar PV: Results from Gujarat
Abstract
We examine the potential for geographic smoothing of solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation using 13 months of observed power production from utility-scale plants in Gujarat, India. To our knowledge, this is the first published analysis of geographic smoothing of solar PV using actual generation data at high time resolution from utility-scale solar PV plants. We use geographic correlation and Fourier transform estimates of the power spectral density (PSD) to characterize the observed variability of operating solar PV plants as a function of time scale. Most plants show a spectrum that is linear in the log–log domain at high frequencies f, ranging from f-1.23 to f-1.56 (slopes of -1.23 and -1.56), thus exhibiting more relative variability at high frequencies than exhibited by wind plants. PSDs for large PV plants have a steeper slope than those for small plants, hence more smoothing at short time scales. Interconnecting 20 Gujarat plants yields a f-1.66 spectrum, reducing fluctuations at frequencies corresponding to 6 h and 1 h by 23% and 45%, respectively. Half of this smoothing can be obtained through connecting 4-5 plants; reaching marginal improvement of 1% per added plant occurs at 12-14 plants. The largest plant (322 MW) showed an f-1.76 spectrum.more »
- Authors:
-
- Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1242273
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 1748-9326
- Publisher:
- IOP Publishing
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY
Citation Formats
Klima, Kelly, and Apt, Jay. Geographic smoothing of solar PV: Results from Gujarat. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/10/104001.
Klima, Kelly, & Apt, Jay. Geographic smoothing of solar PV: Results from Gujarat. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/10/104001
Klima, Kelly, and Apt, Jay. Thu .
"Geographic smoothing of solar PV: Results from Gujarat". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/10/104001. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1242273.
@article{osti_1242273,
title = {Geographic smoothing of solar PV: Results from Gujarat},
author = {Klima, Kelly and Apt, Jay},
abstractNote = {We examine the potential for geographic smoothing of solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation using 13 months of observed power production from utility-scale plants in Gujarat, India. To our knowledge, this is the first published analysis of geographic smoothing of solar PV using actual generation data at high time resolution from utility-scale solar PV plants. We use geographic correlation and Fourier transform estimates of the power spectral density (PSD) to characterize the observed variability of operating solar PV plants as a function of time scale. Most plants show a spectrum that is linear in the log–log domain at high frequencies f, ranging from f-1.23 to f-1.56 (slopes of -1.23 and -1.56), thus exhibiting more relative variability at high frequencies than exhibited by wind plants. PSDs for large PV plants have a steeper slope than those for small plants, hence more smoothing at short time scales. Interconnecting 20 Gujarat plants yields a f-1.66 spectrum, reducing fluctuations at frequencies corresponding to 6 h and 1 h by 23% and 45%, respectively. Half of this smoothing can be obtained through connecting 4-5 plants; reaching marginal improvement of 1% per added plant occurs at 12-14 plants. The largest plant (322 MW) showed an f-1.76 spectrum. Furthermore, this suggests that in Gujarat the potential for smoothing is limited to that obtained by one large plant.},
doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/10/10/104001},
journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
number = 10,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Thu Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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