Influence of Layout and Other Design Choices on the Performance of Large-Scale Photovoltaic Systems

The spatial layout of components in a photovoltaic system impacts the system’s electrical performance. Therefore, it is important for designers to understand how to identify layouts that maximize power performance and best utilize land area, especially as the designed generation capacity and land area use for large-scale photovoltaic systems grows. Such identifications can be made through exploring multiple layout alternatives and comparing power output estimates; unfortunately, typical analysis methods and project schedules restrict—or do not facilitate—such investigations in engineering phases. This paper presents the analyses of power-related metrics for a range of typical layout strategies, block sizes, and other related engineering considerations for large-scale photovoltaic systems. The goal is to further communicate the influence of layout considerations and to identify trends, which—although may not hold for every system design—can be used to guide layout optimization explorations.

Acknowledgements: This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation via the Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant 2008073003.