Many Photo-Voltaic (PV) Engineers design the PV system based on the annual average solar irradiation values of the installation area. This design is adequate if the weather of the installation area provides a small variation between the maximum and minimum solar irradiation values. This study illustrates the impact of the solar radiation by comparing the design of two off grid PV systems installed in two different locations have same annual average solar irradiation values. The case study selected the city of Irbid in Jordan and Abu Dhabi in UAE. The monthly average Irradiation values in Irbid are very diverse where the minimum, average and maximum values are spaced compared with the values in Abu Dhabi which has no significant variation of solar irradiation from month to month. Comparing the Design of the two different systems will reflect the impact of the sporadic solar irradiation on the rating values for the components of each system, which is affecting PV system cost. The design assumes the same load based and the worst case scenario of the solar irradiation. Each system will consist of PV modules, charge controller, power inverter and batteries.

Full text: IJEIR_1642_Final.pdf