Evaluation of a Solar Power Plant at Longyearbyen

Abstract

The world faces one of the greatest challenges by changing the economy in a direction where higher resource productivity and lower greenhouse gas emis- sions are the main focus. The most prominent solution to reduce green house gases is a greater utilisation of renewable energy sources. With a rapid tech- nological advancement, solar energy is now one of the least expensive forms of power in two thirds of the world (Olson, 2019). The main aim of the thesis is to find the solar energy potential at Spitsbergen by creating a model of a solar plant at Longyearbyen in PVsyst and simulate it. The model is a replica of the solar plant at Svalbard Airport. If the simulations of the plant are accurate with the power yield of the solar plant, the model in PVsyst is confirmed. The model can be used for finding areas of improvement on the plant, and quantify these areas. Further, to find the best use of solar energy in the Arctic, simulations of an optimal generic 10 kW system for standard and bifacial modules with meteorological data from Longyearbyen are run. A similar model is run with meteorological data in Munich to see how the results compare with locations in another climate. This part of the study also includes data from solar modules at the University of Tromsø for comparison.

The results from simulations of the model show a higher total power pro- duction than the power yielded from the Airport in 2019 of 9,6%, with mul- tiple areas for improvements on the plant, e. g—oversized inverters and snow cover. Results from simulations of the generic 10 kW system show that the benefits of bifacial modules are more prominent in an Arctic climate than in Munich.