Land ownership

Annual irradiation

Shading

Total investment costs for the PV system

Access to the utility power grid

If trees (or vegetation) adjacent to the PV plant do not shade the PV arrays, there is no need to cut them back – and they can safely be ignored.

There is no need to consider different design options because the yield is determined solely by the solar irradiation at the site.

When planning a MW_p PV system, various design / layout options (with different types of modules) can be considered, in order to see which design /layout would be the optimum.

Some of the area of the site of a large PV farm needs to be reserved (kept clear) for logistics (moving, storing equipment, etc.).

Repairs should be performed exclusively by authorised personnel.

If an unintended plant outage occurs, local electricians can be hired, even if they are not familiar with PV systems and have not received PV-specific training.

A stock of spare parts on-site should be avoided because it ‘ties up’ capital.

Access to spare parts is crucial during the entire operation period of a large PV system.

If technical failures occur, for example, during a monsoon, it is not a problem to delay carrying out repairs until the end of the rainy season.

Multi-MW PV systems are connected to the low-voltage distribution grid.

Feed-in to the grid is limited by ‘grid availability’.

Feed-in to the grid is technically not possible if the distance to the grid-connection point is too large.

Multi-MW PV systems are connected to medium or high-voltage grids.

Measures to prevent vandalism and theft need to be implemented - during the construction phase of the project as well as during the operation period.

Measures also need to be taken against unauthorised access to the site (during construction and operation) for safety reasons (to prevent injury and death).

A 5 MW PV system could have as many as 20,000 PV modules.

A perimeter fence around a PV plant will cause unacceptable delays when maintenance personnel needs access.

To end users / electricity consumers

To the grid operator / utility

To market dealers

Oversized transformers

A power-grid outage

Extreme weather events

Trees on adjacent property

Defective modules

Design of support schemes for renewable energies

Drawing up plans for the procurement of system components and delivery logistics.

Applications for building / land-use permits, etc.

Drawing up plans for the construction and installation of the PV plant, and associated logistics.