E3S Web of Conferences 231, 02002 (2021) https://doi.org/10.

1051/e3sconf/202123102002
PEEE 2020

Solar PV System Performance Ratio Evaluation for Electric

Vehicles Charging Stations in Transit Oriented Development
(TOD) Areas
Kianda Dhipatya Syahindra1,2, Samsul Ma’arif2, Aditya Anindito Widayat1,2, Ahmad Fakhrul Fauzi1,2, and Eko Adhi
Setiawan1,2,*
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok 16424, Indonesia
2
Tropical Renewable Energy Center, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok 16424, Indonesia

Abstract. Transit Oriented Development (TOD) areas are locations that have limited land area. Solar PV
systems are planned to be installed in these areas to support electric vehicles such as e-scooters, electric cars,
motorcycles, and buses. However, solar PV systems in general require a large land area. The purpose of this
paper is to find out and compare the Performance Ratios (PR) of a solar PV system installed on the rooftop
with a floating solar PV system installed on the lake to determine which solar PV system fits better for TOD
areas. PR analysis uses two methods, PVSyst software simulation and is validated using mathematical
calculations. The result of the PR of floating solar PV is 76.39% using PVSyst simulation and 80.24% using
mathematical calculation. Meanwhile, the PR of rooftop solar PV is 82.69% using PVSyst simulation and
73.41% using mathematical calculation. The significant factors that influence PR value are the energy
produced by the solar PV system, its losses, and albedo value of the reflector surface for bifacial solar PV.
Albedo value has to be maximized in order to obtain a higher performance ratio value. Based on this study,
both rooftop and floating PV systems are equally suitable for TOD areas.

1 Introduction been proven to be durable, reliable, and cost effective [5].

It is one of the most effective, sustainable and
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) areas are locations inexpensive ways to produce renewable energy.
that have limited land area. As a city planning concept, However, the most important problem is the large land
TOD is designed and developed to improve land use requirement, especially for densely populated and TOD
efficiency. TOD areas are comprehensive with a variety areas [1, 6]. Solar PV performance is affected by various
of land uses. The comprehensiveness means that there environmental parameters related to location,
are various social and public facilities that can fulfill a temperature, spectral effect, tilt angle, shading effect,
human’s needs. With comprehensiveness and efficient radiation level, and dust and dirt effect [5, 7].
land use, the TOD system should be capable to reduce The efficiency of solar PV modules and the
dependency of fossil-fueled transportation and decrease performance of the PV systems have improved steadily
emissions by using electric vehicles [1]. In order to over the last few decades. System performance is usually
power these vehicles, solar PV systems can be deployed. evaluated by analyzing the performance ratio (PR) [8].
Solar PV systems are viewed as a potential source for PR is a measure of the performance of a PV system
electric vehicles’ charging stations in order to provide taking into account environmental factors (temperature,
electricity for the vehicles from renewable energy irradiation, climate change, etc.). PR can be used as a
sources and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and direct indicator for comparing differently designed
harmful particles. Several studies have been conducted systems, the same system design but established in a
on this particular area. Tanveer, et al. investigated the different location, or for evaluation of a PV system over
possibility of using solar energy to charge electric time [8]. For example, PR was used in a research
vehicles in India [2]. Another research studied different comparing performances of bifacial PV with three
scenarios for electric vehicle and solar PV integration in commercial monofacial PV technologies at the Atacama
two Scandinavian cities, namely Tromso, Norway and Desert in Chile [9].
Uppsala, Sweden [3]. Moreover, a different research was PV Systems with different locations and installed
carried out to propose a strategy for solar-powered capacities can be compared in terms of the performance
electric vehicle charging networks based on category ratio (PR). Several types of solar panel (PV) installations
prioritization [4]. include: rooftop, ground mounted, canal top and floating
Solar PV technology will change the main source of [10]. There are many bodies of water available in
clean energy in the next few years as PV systems have Indonesia which can reduce land costs and operating
*
Corresponding author: [email protected]
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
E3S Web of Conferences 231, 02002 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202123102002
PEEE 2020

costs for electricity generation [10, 11]. Floating solar power per inverter. Meanwhile, the rooftop solar PV has
PV has an advantage over ground and rooftop mounting an installed capacity of 41.1 kWp with 160 modules and
systems due to its cooling effect. It also reduces reservoir 2 inverters with a power of 20 kW per inverter. The two
or lake evaporation and algae growth by shading the systems are connected to the electrical grid at the Faculty
water. However, rooftop PV systems are easily installed of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia. The capacity of
in areas packed with buildings. The purpose of this paper one panel in the Floating solar PV system is 260 Wp and
is to find out and compare the performance ratios of a the capacity of one panel in the rooftop solar PV is 320
rooftop solar PV system with a floating solar PV system Wp, more details can be seen in Table 1. The
to determine which system fits better for TOD areas and configuration of the floating and rooftop solar PV
integrated with electric vehicles’ charging stations. systems can be seen in Figure 2, where the systems are
connected to the electric utility grid. In floating solar PV,
the bifacial PV uses water as a light reflector on the back
2 Methodology side of the PV, where the albedo value of water is 0.1 or
The location of the floating solar PV system on Lake 10% [8, 9].
Mahoni, Universitas Indonesia has coordinates of The formula for calculating PV performance ratio:
6°21'47.0"S 106°49'33.4"E with a capacity of 9.36 kWp (1)
which requires an area of the lake to be covered by 165
m2 of floating solar PV. As for the location of the The calculated reading of plant output contains the
rooftop solar PV system, it has coordinates of result of the following calculation:
6°21'44.1"S 106°49'31.0"E, and is installed above the (2)
Engineering Center Building of the Faculty of Legend:
Engineering, Universitas Indonesia with a capacity of
Global Horizontal Irradiation (
41.1 kWp which requires a roof area of 460 m2. The
rooftop PV system and floating PV system can be seen PV surface area (
in Figure 1. Energy and power data from the system can PV module efficiency
be accessed through the Sunny Portal website, where the
data is used to calculate PR using a mathematical
equation and compared with simulation results from the
PVSyst software. The difference in installed power
capacity and land requirements between the two systems
is very significant. However, the two systems will be
compared in terms of system performance by evaluating
and analyzing the performance ratios (PR).
Fig. 2. Floating and Rooftop Solar PV Diagram

Table 1. PV Module Specifications

Electrical Floating Solar Rooftop

Specification PV Solar PV
Rated Power (Pmpp) 260 Wp 320 Wp
Rated Current
8.50 A 8.69 A
(Impp)
Rated Voltage
30.59 V 36.8 V
(Vmpp)
(a) Short Circuit
9.07 A 9.26 A
Current (Isc)
Open Circuit 45.3 V
38.24 V
Voltage (Voc)

3 Results and discussion

3.1 Performance ratio calculation

To calculate the performance ratios, equation (1) is used.
(b) Due to the locations of the floating solar PV and rooftop
Fig. 1. (a) Rooftop Solar PV System and (b) Floating Solar PV solar PV system which are close to each other, the
System Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) is considered the
same, which is 4.61 kWh/m2. The sampling time used
The floating solar PV system installed is 9.36 kWp was 162 days, starting from 20 February 2020 until 31
with 36 panels of modules and 2 inverters with 5 kW July 2020, because the floating PV system just started

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E3S Web of Conferences 231, 02002 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202123102002
PEEE 2020

operating on February 19, 2020. Within this period, the 3.2 Floating PV system losses analysis
temperature ranged between 22 and 35 degrees Celcius.
For the floating PV system with a PV surface area of Loss diagram for the floating PV system is shown at
57.9 m2, PV efficiency of 16.7%, and the actual energy Figure 4. Annual global horizontal irradiation received
sent to the grid for 162 days is 5832.52 kWh, the by the floating PV system is 1731 kWh/m2. Because the
calculated performance ratio is: system uses bifacial PV, there is additional solar
irradiation reaching the reflecting surface at the bottom
(3)
of the PV by 526 kWh/m2. In this system, because it uses
For the rooftop PV System with a PV surface of 320 water, with an albedo value of 0.1 as a reflector, only
m2, PV efficiency of 16.2%, and the actual energy sent 10% of the solar irradiance can be reflected back, and
only 55.3% can be absorbed by PV after the reflection
to the grid for 162 days is 37747.27 kWh, then the
process from the water. Thus, this Bifacial PV produces
performance ratio is:
an additional 2% of energy from the Global Horizontal
Irradiation, or 34 kWh/m2. After deducting the power
(4) losses and the addition of the rear side of the bifacial,
Based on the mathematical equation of the
during the solar irradiance conversion process, the array
performance ratio, which is a comparison between the
nominal energy at Standard Testing Condition (STC) is
actual energy and the calculated energy, the factors that
16.20 MWh. Furthermore, after losses due to irradiance
affect the PR further are the energy produced by solar
level (-4.3%), temperature (-11.1%), and inverter (-
PV along with the losses. The two graphs in Figure 3
6.5%), the resulting energy sent to the grid is 12.53
show the comparison of the PR between floating PV
MWh per year.
system and rooftop PV system using simulation with
PVSyst and mathematical calculations from actual data.
There are differences in the values of the PR from
the two methods used. For the floating PV system, this is
because the mathematical PR calculation only accounts
the front side of the panels, so that the sunlight received
by the bifacial PV at the rear side due to water reflection
is not included, whereas PVSyst simulation includes it.
The additional output from the rear side of the bifacial
PV increases the divisor in the PR equation leading to a
lower PR result. For the rooftop PV system, this is due to
heat reflected by the concrete below the PV modules
which is not considered in the PVSyst simulation.

(a)

Fig. 4. Loss Diagram of Floating PV

3.3 Rooftop PV system losses analysis

Loss diagram of the rooftop PV system is shown at
Figure 5. Annual global horizontal irradiation received
by rooftop solar PV system is 1732 kWh/m2. Due to the
Incidence Angle Modifier (IAM) factor, irradiation is
reduced by 2%. So that the effective irradiance on
collectors is 1719 kWh/m2. After the PV irradiance
(b) conversion of 16.45%, the array nominal energy
becomes 87.9 MWh. Furthermore, after losses due to
Fig. 3. Performance Ratio Results using (a) PVSyst Simulation
irradiance level (-0.7%), temperature (-10.7%), and
and (b) Mathematical Calculations
inverter (-2.1%), the resulting energy sent to the grid is
74.3. MWh per year.

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E3S Web of Conferences 231, 02002 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202123102002
PEEE 2020

lower performance ratio compared to the rooftop PV

system.

3.4 Albedo variation on floating PV system

Based on the loss diagram in Figure 4, only an additional

2% of Global Horizontal Irradiation enters the rear side
of floating PV system. This is due to the large number of
losses during the process of reflecting sunlight, where
the ground reflection loss is influenced by the albedo
value of the reflecting surface. In the actual condition,
the reflector is water with an albedo value of 0.1.
Therefore, to increase performance ratio, a variety of
reflecting surfaces that have different albedo values is
simulated using PVSyst.
The simulation uses 6 types of reflecting surfaces
with different albedo values [12, 13]. The six types of
reflecting surfaces can be seen in Table 2.
Fig. 5. Loss Diagram of Rooftop PV
Table 2. Albedo values of Different Surface Types

Name Albedo Value

Bare Soil 0.17
Desert Sand 0.4
Fresh Asphalt 0.04
Green Grass 0.25
New Concrete 0.55
Worn Asphalt 0.12

The albedo values in Table 2 are used in the

PVSyst simulations to compare the values of the
resulting system performance ratios. The simulation
results can be seen in Figure 7. In the actual condition,
the value of the performance ratio is 76.39% which is
using lake water. Based on the simulation results, the
highest performance ratio obtained is by using new
concrete at 81.02%, and the lowest performance ratio
Fig. 6. Electric Vehicles Floating PV Charging Station obtained is by using fresh asphalt at 75.77%. Table 3
shows the global irradiance on rear side for each
From both systems’ loss diagrams, there are reflector surface.
significant losses due to temperature, 11.1% at the
floating PV system and 10.7% at the rooftop PV system.
These are caused by Indonesia's position which is in a
tropical region, which has high temperatures.
In addition, due to using bifacial PV, the floating PV
system experiences additional losses which results in a

82 81.02
79.47
Performance Ratio (%)

80 77.93
78 77.11 76.59
75.77 76.39
76
74
72
Base Soil Desert Sand Fresh Asphalt New Concrete Worn Asphalt Lake Water Green Grass

Fig. 7. Performance Ratio with Different Surface Types

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E3S Web of Conferences 231, 02002 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202123102002
PEEE 2020

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