Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic System Design and Assessment for the Academic Campus Using PVsyst Software Sujoy Barua and R. Arun Prasath Centre for Green Energy Technology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India Email: rishimoni@gmail.com, raprasath.get@pondiuni.edu.in Dwipen Boruah GSES India Private Limited, New Delhi, India Email: dwipen.boruah@gses.in Abstract—This study aims to design and evaluate the grid- connected solar photovoltaic roof-top system for academic campus. A design and feasibility study of rooftop solar photovoltaic system project is conducted using tools- PVsyst and design software by inspecting project area by utilizing the NASA surface meteorology data through geographical coordinator of project place. The performance of the system was simulated using PVsyst software and the results were analysed. The analyses of the simulation results show that the project yields energy about 590MWh annually which is about 11% of total annual energy consumption in Pondicherry University. The process of electricity generation from solar photovoltaic system could saves ~42 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The proposed roof top grid connected system is analyzed for the academic campus. Index Terms—grid-connected, solar photovoltaic, PV system, PVsyst, roof-top solar PV, carbon dioxide I. INTRODUCTION India has taken initiatives for promotion and use of green energy technologies both in academic practice and implementation under the development of Solar Institutional campus Programme by India ministry [1]. Grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) systems employ the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity which is fed directly into the electricity grid without the storage in batteries. Building integrated PV system does not require any excessive space. This option, like many other renewable energy options, is generally carbon free or carbon neutral and as such does not emit greenhouse gases during its operation, since global warming and climate change are mostly caused by the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In most parts of India, clear sunny weather is experienced 250 to 300 days a year. The annual global radiation varies from 1600 to 2200kWh/square meter, which is comparable with radiation received in the tropical and sub-tropical regions. The equivalent energy potential is about 6,000 million GWh of energy per year Manuscript received December 5, 2015, revised June 8, 2016. [3]. India declared in its solar mission a goal of producing 22GW of electricity from solar energy by 2022 [4]. Energy production capacity of solar is very little compared to other countries. Grid Connected photovoltaic system has been generated 30,000MW in India and ~973MW stand alone systems in January 2014 [5]. Estimated PV growth is to around 100 MW in 2022, till now about 592,000 solar street and home lighting systems and 7300 agricultural pumps have been running in the rural area [6]. India’s solar mission is structured in three phase in 2010: the purpose is to achieve the target 1 GW of grid-connected solar by 2013, the second 4GW by 2017 and the final to reach 22GW of PV capacity for power generation by the year of 2022. India stands now over 1GW PV capacity all over country [7]. Pondicherry University is one of the pioneering universities in India which is located on the side of east- coast road of Puducherry in Tamil Nadu. Pondicherry is situated at 11.94 (11°56'24"N) latitude and 79.83 (79°49'48"E) longitudes receives good amount of solar radiation. The geographical co-ordinates of the campus are 12.01° North and 79.9° East. The solar radiation data is based on National Aeronautics and Space Administration renewable energy resource website [2]. Figure 1. Relation between radiation and sky clearness [2] The mean annual average of global horizontal solar insolation for the project site is 5.36kWh/m 2 /day. The monthly average wind speed is 4.08ms -1 at 50m and 3.22ms -1 at 10m. Monthly 22-years averaged air International Journal of Electronics and Electrical Engineering Vol. 5, No. 1, February 2017 ©2017 Int. J. Electron. Electr. Eng. 76 doi: 10.18178/ijeee.5.1.76-83