Creating a hybridized model for optimizing residential solar photovoltaic system designs

Pekerti, Dakota

Creating a hybridized model for optimizing residential solar photovoltaic system designs

Pekerti, Dakota

Advisor: McGarity, Arthur; Everbach, Carr

Department: Swarthmore College. Dept. of Engineering

Type: Thesis (B.A.)

Issue Date: 2016

Terms of Use: Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. This work has not been published and access is restricted to members of the Swarthmore College community. It may only be used for non-commercial, research and educational purposes at Swarthmore College. All other uses are restricted.

Permanent URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10066/18786

Abstract:

For my E90 project, I synthesized a robust model that may be used to evaluate both the optimal performance of residential solar PV systems and the effect of different policies regarding solar energy within different cities in the United States. Essentially, the model takes in manufacturer specifications for solar panel modules and inverters, financial parameters, tax information, electricity rates from local utilities, TMY2 data, and baseline electric load for the average household to simulate the lifetime performance of the PV system using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) System Advisor Model (SAM) modules in conjunction with the BORG Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) to provide accurate, optimized estimates of the total system cost, its net present value, and the amount of electric load met by the system as solar fraction.

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