Design and Analysis of a Stand-Alone Photovoltaic System for Footbridge Lighting

The rapid industrialization and growth of the world’s human population have resulted in an unprecedented increase in the demand for energy, in particular, electricity. Depletion of fossil fuels and the impacts of global warming have caused widespread attention using Renewable Energy Resources (RESs), especially solar energy. This paper provides a practical method for the technical feasibility study for the construction of a Stand-Alone Photovoltaic (SAPV) system with a capacity of 863 Wp. Solar module, battery, DC/AC pure sine wave power inverter, and the charge controller are the main components of this PV system design. Choosing optimal capacity and arrangement increase the plant’s efficiency and reduces the overall system costs. In this method, according to the geographical location and type of site construction, e.g., on the ceiling of the footbridge, shadow analysis, and the calculations regards to the number of solar modules and their optimal angles are performed. This off-grid PV system is designed for the AC loads. PVSyst software is used for the system analysis, and the simulation results show the performance of the designed system.