Abstract:
The sizing and implementation of a stand-alone solar PV system deployment in a community is easy to maintain, but the initial cost is high. A stand-alone solar PV system can be a solution to an unstable electricity supply when the sizing is done properly. This work presents the sizing of a stand-alone solar PV system for a rural community as a source of electricity for powering the small community in Kwali Area Council of Abuja – Kilankwa 1. The community consist of 78 households, 9 shops, I clinic, 5 churches, 2 schools and 2 mosques. The power requirement of the community was determined by enumeration of the individual load making up the total load of the community. The energy requirement of the community is 365,262.2W. The analysis shows that in order to supply the required average load in the community, it will require 240 number of solar panels (200W each) at the cost of seventy – five thousand naira only for each, 58 strings of batteries with capacity of 11,273.525 Ah each, at the cost rate of one hundred and ten thousand five hundred naira each, 10 charge controllers (60A each), at the cost rate of forty-two thousand naira each, 10 inverters (5kVA each), at the cost rate of two hundred and seventy thousand naira each, making it a total sum of twenty-six million, eight hundred and thirty-three thousand naira only (N26,833,000), to comfortably power Kilankwa 1 community in Kwali Area Council – Abuja. The analysis presented in this work can be applied to any community having similar load requirement.
