Sustainability aspects of dry-type transformers applied to solar photovoltaic and BESS

This paper analysis sustainability aspects of dry-type transformers applied to Solar Photovoltaic (Solar PV) and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). The transformers serve as step up unitary transformers connected to inverters at low voltage (LV) converting it to medium voltage (MV) levels. The assessment is carried out based on a comparison between dry-type transformer designs with two different colling modes, natural air-cooling and forced air-cooling. The comparison considers different sustainability aspects such as material efficiency, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and equipment’ footprint. The results show that forced cooling mode enables more compact equipment, providing materials’ savings, while also reducing greenhouse gases emissions and keeping efficiency levels at equivalent levels.