Abstract:
Solar energy has received increasing attention as
one of the potential renewable energy sources for power
generation in recent past. Introduction of Net Metering and
the increment in provision for renewables encouraged the
usage of Solar PV systems in Sri Lanka. However, the
intermittent nature of solar energy has become one of the
barriers for solar energy based power to be integrated to the
national power grids. Due to unpredictability solar energy
based power plants are non-dispatchable and can cause
network instability. With an efficient and reasonably accurate
predictable model, a better system balance can be achieved.
Shadowing on solar PV modules results in reduction of power
produced. Cloud coverage blocking the sun can be identified as
the major contributor in shadowing. Identifying and tracking
the clouds can be used to finally predict the solar PV output.
This paper presents a methodology to obtain cloud image data
and an algorithm to process the images which can be used to
predict the relationship between the cloud movements and the
solar PV output.
