Victor Afyan1 and Arsen Karapetyan2

1 SolarEn, LLC, 2/2 Shrjanayin St., Yerevan 0068, Armenia.

2 SolarEn, LLC, 2/2 Shrjanayin St., Yerevan 0068, Armenia.

* Corresponding Author, victor afyan@solaren. com

Abstract

10 kW PV power station is integrated into the roof of the five-store medical center building and connected to the 3-phase grid on the net metering basis. For cooling needs of the building there is a hot water driven lithium bromide absorption chiller with 420kW cooling capacity. The chiller is powered by a gas boiler and supplies chilled water to the fan-coils system of the building. PV station is installed and tested. Absorption chiller is installed and commissioned. Technical data for PV and cooling systems are presented.

Keywords: BIPV, net metering, cooling, absorption chiller.

1. Introduction

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) and grid-tied solar power stations are well known and implemented in developed countries due to the favorable feed-in tariff and rebates. Although PV technology has a long history in CIS countries, particularly for autonomous power supply applications, its BIPV implementation is hampered by absence of grid connection legal mechanisms and financial stimuli.

PV power plant as well as other renewable energy (RE) power plants connection and parallel operation with the grid has been ensured and regulated by the net metering mechanism adopted in Armenia in 2005. According to the regulation all RE power plants and even combined heat and power (CHP) units with capacity up to 150kW can benefit parallel operation with the grid based on the net metering.

The PV power station and tri-generation energy efficient system has been designed for the renovated building of the Armenian-American Wellness Center in Yerevan. The design is based on 10kW roof-integrated grid-connected PV power station, hot water driven lithium bromide absorption chiller with 420kW cooling capacity and cooling tower, gas genset with 110kWe and 150 kWth capacity and a back-up gas boiler. The CHP issue is still pending but other components of the system are already installed and described below