Abstract:
Renewable energy from PV system is a clean pollution and has high potential in Thailand. At present, the total cumulative installed capacity is 2500 MW approximately and it is dramatically increasing. PV systems need to be really installed in outdoor area to convert solar energy to electrical energy with more efficiency. Accordingly, the system has a risk to be hit by lightning strike. Nevertheless, almost PV systems installed in Thailand do not have an appropriate lightning protection system. Although some PV systems have already designed to protect from lightning, it is quite different design that is based on the each designer experience.
This thesis proposes the computer program to assess the risk of lightning strike and design the appropriate lightning and surge protection in PV systems based on IEC 62305 standard and the standard of Engineering Institute of Thailand for lightning protection part 3. The program can assess the risk of lightning strike of PV system that it is neither requirement to protect or not. If it is required, the computer program can give the results of the suitable number and position of lightning rod installation and suitable sizing for surge protective devices. This makes the very convenience for designing based on the same standard.
The developed program was repeatedly tested with the sample of actual PV system installed and verifies the results for designing with 3D drawing program by using both method of protective angle and rolling sphere. The results from the developed program show that they are accepted based on the standard mentioned above.