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A study of the solar energy systems and storage devices
Includes abstract.
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Electrical Engineering
2014
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| _version_ | 1867613288633729024 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Chukwuka, Chukwubuikem Oluchukwu |
| author2 | Folly, Komla A |
| author_browse | Chukwuka, Chukwubuikem Oluchukwu Folly, Komla A |
| author_facet | Folly, Komla A Chukwuka, Chukwubuikem Oluchukwu |
| author_sort | Chukwuka, Chukwubuikem Oluchukwu |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes abstract. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5263 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:45.686Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | Department of Electrical Engineering |
| publisherStr | Department of Electrical Engineering |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5263 A study of the solar energy systems and storage devices Chukwuka, Chukwubuikem Oluchukwu Folly, Komla A Electrical Engineering Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references. Following the 2008 severe electricity shortage in South Africa, domestic and industrial users faced incessant periods of blackouts. It is generally believed to be associated with lack of generation capacity. Since then research efforts have been directed towards boosting the generation capacity of the South African network by investing in a mix of power generation projects which include coal, nuclear and renewable energy schemes such as solar and wind. The renewable energy resources are considered a more viable option because of their many advantages such as lower greenhouse gas emissions, inexhaustible, reliable and even cheaper energy cost on the long term. Africa has huge potentials of solar power because of the abundance of direct sunshine in most days of the year. The rising cost of the fossil electricity has made the solar power an attractive option bearing in mind that the cost of the solar power has plummeted steadily in the past few years. Two main technologies are prevalent in the solar power research. These are photovoltaic (PV) systems and the concentrated solar power (CSP). The PV systems are made of solar panels and power electronic circuits. They are mostly economical in small residential units. The CSPs on the other hand which are made of solar field, thermal storage and steam turbine/generator units are economical only in large scale. In this thesis, a 2.5 kW Residential PV system and a 100 MW Molten Salt Power Tower Concentrated Solar Power were developed. The technical model of the photovoltaic panel and the power electronic circuits that connect it to the grid were also developed with Matlab/Simulink while the economic simulation of the PV, as well as the Concentrated Solar Power were carried out with Systems Advisor Model (SAM) using the climate data of Cape Town. The simulation results of this work compared the cost of PV electricity first with Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) of National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), and then with the residential tariff charged by the City of Cape Town. Also the cost of electricity using CSP is compared NERSA`s REFIT. Finally the cost of PV electricity is compared with that of CSP. We therefore conclude that, with government incentives, CSP and PV are viable technologies however electricity produced by CSP is cheaper than that of the PV. 2014-07-31T11:00:36Z 2014-07-31T11:00:36Z 2013 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5263 eng application/pdf Department of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Electrical Engineering Chukwuka, Chukwubuikem Oluchukwu A study of the solar energy systems and storage devices |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | A study of the solar energy systems and storage devices |
| title_full | A study of the solar energy systems and storage devices |
| title_fullStr | A study of the solar energy systems and storage devices |
| title_full_unstemmed | A study of the solar energy systems and storage devices |
| title_short | A study of the solar energy systems and storage devices |
| title_sort | study of the solar energy systems and storage devices |
| topic | Electrical Engineering |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5263 |
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