Design and performance evaluation of a solar PV system at Karume Institute of Science and Technology for grid power outage mitigation

Karume Institute of Technology (KIST) in Zanzibar has been faced with electricity blackouts for a prolonged period. This has been due to its sole reliance on main grid power. This problem can be solved by utilizing renewable energies available in Zanzibar Island, such as solar photovoltaic (PV). Therefore, a solar PV plant rated at 25.21 kWp is installed at KIST in 2021 to act as the main source of power. With this technology, the grid is used as a backup when there is little sunlight or during the nights. The solar PV system performance is measured by several tools to collect the data of solar array yield, final yield, reference yield, performance ratio, inverter efficiency and average capacity. The results show that maximum array yield is about 10.2 kWh/kWp, final yield is 8.195 kWh/kWp, reference yield is 5.2 kWh/kWp, and performance ratio is 64.7%. The maximum efficiencies for the PV, inverter and system are shown to be 37.6%, 89.8% and 63.1% respectively. The average capacity was observed to be around 22.45%, the load demand for the building is about 18 kW/day and the annual average energy generated by the PV system is 395.5 kWh of the installed capacity energy.