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Comparison of solar radiation and PV generation variability: system dispersion in the UK

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journal contribution
posted on 2017-02-17, 14:11 authored by Diane Palmer, Elena Koumpli, Ian Cole, Tom BettsTom Betts, Ralph Gottschalg
This paper investigates how the number and geographical distribution of solar installations may reduce aggregate irradiance variability and therefore lessen the overall impact of PV on grid distribution. The current distribution of UK solar farms is analysed. It is found that variability is linked to site clustering. Other factors may include distance and direction between sites, proximity to coast, local topography and weather patterns (i.e. wind, cloud, etc). These factors do not operate in isolation, but form a complex and unpredictable system. The UK solar farm fleet currently comprises a range of system sizes which, when viewed en masse, reduces temporal variation in PV generation. The predominant southwest-northeast direction of solar farm groups is also beneficial in reducing output variability within grid supply point areas.

Funding

This work has been conducted as part of the research project ‘PV2025 - Potential Costs and Benefits of Photovoltaic for UK Infrastructure and Society’ project which is funded by the RCUK’s Energy Programme (contract no: EP/K02227X/1).

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

IET-RPG

Volume

11

Issue

5

Pages

550-557

Citation

PALMER, D. ...et al., 2017. Comparison of solar radiation and PV generation variability: system dispersion in the UK. IET Renewable Power Generation, 11 (5), pp. 550-557.

Publisher

IET

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International (CC BY 3.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Acceptance date

2017-02-16

Publication date

2017-03-03

Notes

This paper was published as Open Access by IET. It is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International (CC BY 3.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

ISSN

1752-1424

Language

  • en

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