Design of solar energy system in food manufacturing environment

This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Global climate change has driven many manufacturing organizations to consider renewable energy as an alternative source of power for their operations. However, the instability and unpredictability of renewable energy has made it difficult to design an optimal solution. This is particularly critical for food manufacturing which is constrained by timing and seasonable fluctuations. This paper describes a feasibility study of offsetting grid supplied power by local generation using a roof top photovoltaic system. The study shows that the company can significantly reduce their carbon emitting energy usage by a 100 kW photovoltaic solar system that helps to reduce the annual electricity consumption by 39%. The system sizing methodology has taken into account the load profile of the food manufacturing plant and seasonal solar energy availability with the constrain to consume all solar power immediately.