Abstract :
—Global interest in solar power has reached new
highest with continues efforts by governments and organizations
to establish a stance against fossil fuel dependence and the high
percentage of carbon dioxide emitted by the industrialized world.
Employing renewable energy technologies like solar power seems
to be a good viable option, especially for third world countries
which happens to receive huge amounts of solar radiation around
the year. This paper presents study and design a common PV
system configuration and how to optimize the results in order to
build the best cost efficient technology. The numerical analysis
through two main software HOMER and REPS.OM is carried
out. HOMER optimal configuration showed an energy cost of
0.315 USD/kWh while, REPS.OM's cost of energy was around
0.151 USD/kWh. A clear difference between these two tools might
indicates that specialized MATLAB-coded software is more
accurate than global tools which are designed to provide close
results. Either tools show great promise for the 'photovoltaic'
technology and its implementation in the Sultanate of Oman.
Keyword :
Solar power; photovoltaic; carbon emissions; HOMER; REPS.OM; numerical design