Exceeding Simulations, PV Plant In Kazakhstan Defies Weather extremes

Kazakhstan gets 2200–3000 sun hours annually, bringing great potential for PV development. A 50 MW PV plant, backed by the Risen Energy as the developer is in the spotlight among 37 PV plants currently in Kazakhstan, thanks to its outstanding performance. Located in Chulakkurgan, Turkistan a desert environment with temperature extremes of a lowest of –27°C and the highest is 42°C. The PV plant located here has delivered a performance ratio (PR) measurement result of 80.39% in July, 3.8% higher than the simulated value. Considering the extreme environment, the energy yield has comfortably exceeded design and return on investment (ROI) expectations, according to onsite tests performed according to IEC 61724: Photovoltaic System Performance Monitoring. The test results are as follows:

The Simulation…

As shown, the all-time highest actual PR was 82.44%, and the 7-day weighted average was 80.39%. According to the PV system report submitted to the supervisor for review, the simulated PR for July was 76.6%, making the actual PR 3.8% higher than simulated.

The project has been built using Risen Energy’s 330 W polycrystalline PV modules, Huawei SUN2000-185KTL string inverters, and Arctech Solar Skyline 1V84 trackers.

According to a Huawei spokesperson, the Huawei inverter’s multi-MPPT feature can help minimize the impact of PV string mismatch during dusty and cloudy weather. A 3.5 MW PV array supports 170 MPPT routes to ensure that each PV string works at its optimum, which in turn brings higher energy yields. Not only this, but Huawei SUN2000 series string inverters tolerance for a wide temperature range made it a good pick for this project. The firm claims that they can run stably in the temperature range of –40°C to 60°C, with the availability reaching over 99.996%. High component selection standards and patented heat dissipation technologies ensure the reliability of all components, even in difficult or severe environments.

Besides that, Huawei string inverters use low power consumption control technology, power supply technology with a wide input voltage range, and power component shutdown peak suppression technology. This enables support for an operating voltage range as wide as 500–1500 V.A lower operating voltage lower limit enables inverters to start early and shut down late every day, allowing for more power generation.

Jeff Lv, Technical Director at Risen Energy, was on site personally for inspection and research. The firm claims that the Risen team  compared over 100 system design solutions with automatic configuration and loss algorithms, and analyzed the cost and benefit sensitivity to select the final cost structure of each project.

According to data from the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, in the first quarter of 2020, the country generated 548.4 million kWh of electricity using renewable energy, 35.7% of it generated from PV. The success of PV plants like the Chulakkurgan 50 MW project could be just the encouragement the country needs to ramp up its renewable energy ambitions