Performance indices evaluation and techno economic analysis of photovoltaic power plant for the application of isolated India's island

The usage of PV technology based electricity generation is much more popular nowadays and is being adopted by many countries as an alternative option for fossil fuel power generations. The present paper focuses on normalized performance indices and techno-economic based feasibility analysis of PV plant in an Indian isolated island, Andaman and Nicobar island where grid supply is not feasible. The estimated normalized indices range obtained for the aforementioned island are 3.0-5.10 h/d for array yield, 2.70-4.59 h/d for final yield, 1.10-1.95 h/d for array capture losses, 0.3-0.51 for system losses and 68.55-80.22% for performance ratio. The island annual global solar radiation is found to be 5.29 kWh/m(2)/day with clearness index lies within 0.42-0.68. The techno-economic analysis is performed by using HOMER simulation software to obtained optimal size by assuming typical seasonal load profile for a single household. The obtained optimal PV configuration contains 2.5 kWPV array, 12 numbers of battery and converter size of 2.0 kWwith cost of energy is found to be $0.398, net present cost of $9637, 224 $/year operating cost, 9.3 years as battery life, initial capital cost of $6773 and renewable fraction of 1. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.