The Netherlands is aiming for the roll-out of more solar PV. However like many densely populated countries, the country is running into issues of lack of space. Opportunities around infrastructural works like highways provide space without compromising the landscape. Examples of this double use are already developed and demonstrated, like for instance sound barriers and solar roads. New is the combination of solar PV with traffic barriers. This has a big potential since the Dutch main road network had 7.500 km of guiderail and the construction to put PV on is already there. In the MESH (Modular E cover for Solar Highways) project a consortium of knowledge institutes, a province and companies developed a prototype and tested it in a pilot. The consortium consists of TNO, Solliance (in which TNO is a partner, a high-end research institute for flexible thin film solar cells such as CIGS and Perovskite), Heijmans Infra (focusing mainly on the construction, improvement and maintenance of road infrastructure, including guiderails), DC Current (applying innovations with regard to power optimizers for the linear PV application), the Province of Noord-Holland (which acts as a leading customer) and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) as a knowledge institution that links education and research. In this project the theme Sustainable Energy Systems of AUAS is involved with both lecturers and student groups. In the project, Solliance investigated and developed the flexible thin film PV technology to be applied with a focus on shape and reliability. TNO and Heijmans developed a modular casing concept and a fastening system that allows quick installation on site. DC Current worked on the DC management with regard to voltage, electrical safety and minimizing failure in case of collision. At the end of the project, the partners in the consortium have validated knowledge about how to integrate PV into the guiderail and can start with the scaling up of the technology for commercial applications. In order to meet the various requirements for traffic safety on the one hand and generating electricity on the other hand, the Systems Engineering methodology was leading during the project. In the project we first built a small, but full scale prototype and invited safety experts to evaluate the design. With this feedback we made a redesign for the pilot. This pilot is placed on the highway as safety barrier and tested for a year. In a presentation at EU PVSEC18 [1] K.Sewalt reported on the design phase. This time we want to present the results of our test phase and give answers on our research questions.
Renewable energy sources have an intermittent character that does not necessarily match energy demand. Such imbalances tend to increase system cost as they require mitigation measures and this is undesirable when available resources should be focused on increasing renewable energy supply. Matching supply and demand should therefore be inherent to early stages of system design, to avoid mismatch costs to the greatest extent possible and we need guidelines for that. This paper delivers such guidelines by exploring design of hybrid wind and solar energy and unusual large solar installation angles. The hybrid wind and solar energy supply and energy demand is studied with an analytical analysis of average monthly energy yields in The Netherlands, Spain and Britain, capacity factor statistics and a dynamic energy supply simulation. The analytical focus in this paper differs from that found in literature, where analyses entirely rely on simulations. Additionally, the seasonal energy yield profile of solar energy at large installation angles is studied with the web application PVGIS and an hourly simulation of the energy yield, based on the Perez model. In Europe, the energy yield of solar PV peaks during the summer months and the energy yield of wind turbines is highest during the winter months. As a consequence, three basic hybrid supply profiles, based on three different mix ratios of wind to solar PV, can be differentiated: a heating profile with high monthly energy yield during the winter months, a flat or baseload profile and a cooling profile with high monthly energy yield during the summer months. It is shown that the baseload profile in The Netherlands is achieved at a ratio of wind to solar energy yield and power of respectively Ew/Es = 1.7 and Pw/Ps = 0.6. The baseload ratio for Spain and Britain is comparable because of similar seasonal weather patterns, so that this baseload ratio is likely comparable for other European countries too. In addition to the seasonal benefits, the hybrid mix is also ideal for the short-term as wind and solar PV adds up to a total that has fewer energy supply flaws and peaks than with each energy source individually and it is shown that they are seldom (3%) both at rated power. This allows them to share one cable, allowing “cable pooling”, with curtailment to -for example-manage cable capacity. A dynamic simulation with the baseload mix supply and a flat demand reveals that a 100% and 75% yearly energy match cause a curtailment loss of respectively 6% and 1%. Curtailment losses of the baseload mix are thereby shown to be small. Tuning of the energy supply of solar panels separately is also possible. Compared to standard 40◦ slope in The Netherlands, facade panels have smaller yield during the summer months, but almost equal yield during the rest of the year, so that the total yield adds up to 72% of standard 40◦ slope panels. Additionally, an hourly energy yield simulation reveals that: façade (90◦) and 60◦ slope panels with an inverter rated at respectively 50% and 65% Wp, produce 95% of the maximum energy yield at that slope. The flatter seasonal yield profile of “large slope panels” together with decreased peak power fits Dutch demand and grid capacity more effectively.
The goal of this paper is twofold: i) to design a viable business model for community owned solar farms that will be setup in the north of the Netherlands. ii) To present the findings from this case study, and to propose generalisations that are relevant for the development of artefacts that can be used to facilitate the design of viable business models in a business ecosystem setting.USE 2015
