ELECTRICITY GENERETION AT SERBIAN ZNEB – SIZING OF REQUIRED PV PANELS AREA TO MINIMIZE THE PRIMARY ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies are an attractive option for clean and renewable electricity generation. In this paper, the possibilities to decrease energy consumption of Serbian residential buildings are analyzed. The building with electrical energy generated by PV system is investigated. The major aim is to determine the area of the PV array in order to minimize the consumption of primary energy. The residential buildings with variable thermal insulation thickness, variable electricity consumption for electric equipment and lighting and variable hot water consumption are investigated in order to achieve zero-net energy building (ZNEB). The buildings are simulated in EnergyPlus environment. Open Studio plug-in in Google SketchUp was used for buildings design, Hooke-Jeeves algorithm for optimization and GENOPT software for software execution control. The obtained results gave the optimal size of PV array.