Investigation of solar energy for photovoltaic application in Singapore

This paper addresses the availability of solar energy resources for photovoltaic applications in Singapore, a typical tropical country. The paper analyzes the two years solar radiation data in Singapore, studies on the impact of unique tropical weather conditions on solar radiation and performs a case study of grid-tied PV system. The solar radiation data in 2002 and 2003 are collected from Singapore Meteorological Authority. The study on the radiation data will help work out the yearly variation of solar net radiation, diffuse and irradiation in the tropical area. The PV system for case study is a 19.2 kWp grid-tied PV system installed in Singapore Polytechnic. The PV system is composed of the 256 times 75 Wp mono-crystalline PV modules and installed on the rooftop of one teaching block in the Polytechnic campus. The analytic results in the paper help understand the variation of solar radiations in Singapore and the impact of tropical weather conditions on the operation of a photovoltaic system.