What are hybrid PV solar systems?
Energía Solar
Energía Solar
What are hybrid PV solar systems?
There are different hybrid systems:
- Systems with accumulators (the generator motor works when the stored PV energy is exhausted)
- Systems without accumulators or direct (the generator motor works when the PV energy is not enough)
Hybrid PV system (with accumulators)
Hybrid PV system (with accumulators)
Components:
- Photovoltaic solar panels (solar generators)
- Regulator (battery protector against deep discharge and overload)
- Batteries or accumulators (energy reserve, to consume it for example at night)
- Inverter (transforms the direct current to alternating current of 110 volts and protects the consumers from voltage alterations of the generator)
- Motor-generator (starts when the batteries are exhausted; it supplies energy directly to consumers and at the same time charges the batteries until they are full; and then the motor-generator turns off.
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Hybrid PV system
The normal PV system can provide a certain amount of energy. In the event that more energy is needed punctually, the PV system must be increased by this amount with its respective cost. As this amount of peak power is not consumed all the time, a larger system is not very cost effective.
The hybrid system covers the normal amount of energy with the photovoltaic system and only the missing energy peak will be produced by the motor generator.
The hybrid system is cheaper to install initially than a larger PV system, but the motor-generator consumes fuel and requires maintenance, which is costly in the long run.
Cauchal's hybrid system is dimensioned so that it produces all the "normal" energy with its solar component.
The peak energy of the communal freezers, which consume a lot at the moment when the shellfish harvests arrive, will be produced by the motor generator at night when the system fails.
In this case, it is calculated that the motor-generator has to produce around 20% of the peak energy: working for approximately one hour, until the battery bank is full, and then the inverter continues to supply energy from the batteries.
For reasons that the motor-generator does not have to work all the time without interruption, the system works very cheaply and without major maintenance. The motor generator alone, without the hybrid system, would have to work 24 hours a day to feed the freezers, with the hybrid system it works maybe an hour a day.
The maximum peak of energy produced by the hybrid system can be very large, because the power of the photovoltaic system is added to the power of the motor-generator.
Quito, Ecuador, South America
Photovoltaic water pump systems that do not require batteries so the return on investment is very fast. These systems work fully automatic.
