Grimstad Renewable Energy Park - Hydrogen Implementing ...

5. OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Due to the complexity of the system, a large effort has been required to test the system and get
it in operation. The PV cells and the solar collectors are now working well. An example of data
that can be obtained from the system is shown below:
One-third of the PV system, i.e., 36 m 2 of the crystalline cells and 37.2 m 2 of the amorphous
cells, has been connected to the main grid via the four “Sunny Boy” SWR 2000 converters.
These converters are maximum power point trackers, which convert the DC current to 50 Hz
AC current. The total converter system produces a maximum of 8 kW of power, with 2 kW from
each converter.
The energy delivered to the grid has been recorded continuously from November 2001. Figure
12 shows the cumulative energy production on a sunny day in November.
Energy/kWh
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
07:00 08:12 09:24 10:36 11:48 13:00 14:12 15:24
time/h
Figure 12: Cumulative electrical energy delivered to the grid on a sunny day in November 2001
As the figure shows, energy production begins at approximately 9.30 in the morning. After
14.00 in the afternoon there is virtually no production. The total electricity production on that day
was 14 kWh, or 190 Wh/m 2 .
Figure 13 shows the total electricity production in November 2001. Approximately 200 kWh
were produced to the grid in that month. The total area of the PV cells connected to the grid is
73.2 m 2 , for an output of 2.7 kWh/m 2 . The slope of the curve decreases gradually, showing how
the energy production decreases towards the end of the month.
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