Design and sizing of solar PV plant for an electric bus depot in Malaysia

Abstract

Electric buses consume a high amount of electricity during the charging process, resulting in a high maximum demand (MD) that leads to high operational cost and emissions. Therefore, the aim was to use solar energy to reduce the MD. The off-grid solar PV plant has been designed and sized based on the MD data of the bus depot. The results include the number of PV modules; area required to install the PV modules; sizing of the balance of system. For example, about 7350 modules, 1200 flooded deep cycle batteries, 760 kW inverter size, 566 MPPT smart solar charge controllers and 23,200 m2 (5.73 acres) area are needed to offset 466.5 kW of MD.