Title | Output Variability in Europe’s Largest PV Power Plant |
Author(s) | Anastasios (Tassos) Golnas, Joe Bryan |
Keywords | Variability, Grid Integration, Aggregation, Rovigo |
Topic | PV Systems |
Subtopic | Large PV Power Plants and Distributed PV: System Aspects and Grid Connection |
Event | 26th EU PVSEC |
Session | 5BV.2.50 |
Pages manuscript | 4356 - 4359 |
ISBN | 3-936338-27-2 |
DOI | 10.4229/26thEUPVSEC2011-5BV.2.50 |
As the cost of photovoltaic systems is driven lower and the “grid parity” milestone of energy cost appears closer, the grid-integration challenges posed by the variable output of those systems have received increasing attention. At the same time due to economies of scale and an operations mode that is familiar to electric utilities, large, “central-generation” PV systems are being constructed at an ever increasing pace. While the output variability of distributed PV systems is mitigated from geographical dispersion and low correlation over typical distances, the output of central-generation systems is much more sensitive to local weather variability. Still, the sheer size of a very large system already provides a smoothing effect to the total output as such a system can be described as an aggregation of smaller arrays connected to a single inverter each. In this work we demonstrate and characterize the smoothing effect of the spatial expanse for the continent’s largest contiguous PV system in Rovigo, Italy. We will explore the variability of power output across multiple time, spatial, and capacity domains.